Piano
by MyMidnightLove
Summary: [shonen ai] Hyuuga Neji was an outstanding pianist, but when his odd new roommate Sabaku no Gaara and him are told to work on a project together, will their awkward situation bloom into love? Yes, I changed the summary again. Better than it sounds GaaNeji
1. Sabaku no Gaara, such an odd name

**Well, this is my first fic under this pen name. I really like it, so i hope you do to... I guess there's not really much else to say.**

** I really want to thank Hotaru-ai for helping me get through this fic, she read every chater that I have so far, and she keeps asking for more. Without her, this fic pprobably wouldn't ve this good, and chances are that i wouldn't have had the mtivation to continue either. So I just wanted to take a moment to thank her.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Warnings: GaaNeji, shonen-ai (yes people, that means light boyXboy) Rating may go up. This is according to hotaru-ai my best work ever, so I want to know what you people think. Please review!!!  
**

* * *

_Piano_

Pale fingers flowed over ivory keys, hitting each note, never once looking. Each key held a special meaning to him, each note was a song in itself that only he could understand. This was why he was praised as an outstanding pianist by his peers and superiors. Because he lived the piano. It was his life, his everything.

He knew how a piano worked on the inside, where each string had to connect to produce flawless sound, he had a beautiful instrument at his home that no one was allowed to use. He tuned it himself, he cleaned it almost every day, and he played. He played and he played, for hours on end, but sill he was never tired of the beautiful instrument. It held such grace, produced such wonderful sounds for him, and never once failed him.

A piano was faithful, it wouldn't hurt you. It was predictable, and no matter when or where it was, it would always act the same way. The pianist controls the piano. But Hyuuga Neji liked it that way, because he hated not being in control of his surroundings.

He attended a prestigious boarding school for the musically gifted, paid for by his rich uncle, Hyuuga Hiashi. All Hyuugas were musicaly gifted, or trained from a very young age until they were. They were taught that the music was more important than anything else. Music and school came before personal pleasure, came before friends, sometimes, if the situation called for it, before family.

Neji was an honor roll student with perfect grades, perfect attendance, but no friends. Most people at his school weren't very social though. The rich don't mesh well with the rich, because they always find something to disagree over, and all the students in this school were very rich. There was only one exception. Or more, there was soon going to be one exception.

For the first time in the history of Konoha Music Academy, there was going to be a scholarship student.

He was to arrive in one week, but rumors were already flying that he was a pianist, and an incredible one at that. Of course, he would have to be to get into this school on a scholarship. Neji was considered the best pianist in the school by many, but this boy was rumored to be better.

This angered the Hyuuga to no end. He spent hours practicing, even more hours than usual. For the first two months of the school year before he arrived, Neji trained like an insane man with no other purpose. He skipped meals, and hardly ever slept. He became paler and lost almost ten pounds off his already alarmingly thin frame. Had he had any friends, they would have been very worried about him.

Neji had no roommate, unlike many of the other boys, because his uncle "suggested" that he would work better if he was alone. His uncle had also donated a considerable sum to renovate the school's extensive library. Neji didn't mind being alone in the least though. In fact, he found that it _did_ help him to work better when there was no one around to distract him. He had never felt like he was missing out on anything.

But three days before the arrival of the mysterious new student, Neji received a letter from the headmistress of the academy, Tsunade. She was incredibly young for a headmistress of such an elite school, but looked even younger. At the age of about fifty six years old, Tsunade could easily pass for thirty, a fact that she flaunted with numerous low necklines and short skirts.

She had been criticized by many for her not-so-age-appropriate outfits, but the fact remained that she was a great headmistress. She took time to meet personally with students, parents and concerned teachers, and organized inter-school events to perfection. Many gave credit to her right hand Shizune though. Shizune was thirty four years old, and had shoulder-length black hair. She was very friendly, and chastised Tsunade when she let things get into disarray. Not much was known about her though, except that she was everywhere Tsunade was.

Neji was shocked when he received the letter. It was handed to him by Shizune one night after dinner. He had been aggravated that someone was disturbing his concentration, but had been furious after he read the letter.

_Hyuuga Neji,_

_You will be receiving a roommate on November the thirteenth._

_His name is Sabaku no Gaara, he is a new transfer student and an outstanding pianist like yourself._

_I apologize personally for the short notice of this letter, but I trust that the two of you will get along well._

_Tsunade_

_Headmistress of Konoha Music Academy_

He was going to be rooming with the new scholarship student! If there was one type of person that rich people argued with more than other rich people, it was people who weren't rich, but were in a rich person's environment. They often ignored the social rules of higher society and caused problems for those around them.

This was Neji's stereotypical view of middle class people.

He could only hope that his roommate would be quiet, and not embarrass or bother him.

The room was already prepared for two people, here were two beds, but he only used one. There were two dresses and two desks also, but he only used one of each. He was a terribly neat person, and hated disorganization. He didn't want to have to be cleaning up after a messy roommate, but resigned to the fact the he had no other choice.

That night he fell asleep thinking about the name Sabaku no Gaara. Gaara of the Desert. Such an odd name…

* * *

**Well, there's the first chapter, it's finaly up!!! I'm so proud of myself...**

**Please read and review!  
**


	2. Fateful meetings, beautiful music

**Here's the second chapter to Piano, I'm uploading the first three today just to give this fic a nice booster start (did that make any sense at all??? o.O) Please R&R, hope everyone enjoys it!**

**Disclaimer: Nope, don't ownNaruto this chapter either.**

* * *

_Piano_

Three days after the previous chapter

Hyuuga Neji was a nervous wreck, which was really very unlike him, because he was always so calm and collected. Today was the day that his new roommate was arriving, and the whole school was buzzing with talk about him. As excited as they were now about his arrival, when he did come, Neji knew that they wouldn't talk to him or acknowledge his presence. They would look upon him as an inferior being because he wasn't as rich as them.

It was already fourth period, half an hour to go until lunch, and he still hadn't arrived. Each passing hour made Neji more and more nervous. No one had told him what time his roommate would arrive, and he didn't know if he was expected to go meet him or not.

After Math, Neji had lunch. He bought his lunch every day, and today he was eating penne pasta with pesto and a diet coke. He sat at his usual table, a small two person one under the great willow tree in one of the gardens where students were allowed to eat. He always sat alone.

Fifth period was music, his favorite class of the day, and it was also the longest. It was one and a half hours long, and his class was currently working on an ensemble piece in which the piano had the main part. He, being the best pianist, was playing the lead part, and they were going to perform it at the Fire Country Music Festival in one month.

He entered the class room, and took his seat at the large black grand piano in the back of the room. It stood right across from an identical white and gold one. Several students were sitting at smaller standing pianos and some were with violins, cellos, and all sorts of other instruments. The teacher, Yuuhi Kurenai, was waiting at the front of the classroom impatiently watching the clock. There were no bells to signal the periods at Konoha Music Academy, teachers and students went by the time on the numerous clocks in the buildings, and according to the clock, students had thirty seconds to show up before they were late.

When it was time for class to begin, Kurenai wasted no time in getting the students to start. She immediately told them to open their sheet music and start the piece from the beginning. She was ruthless. If you wanted to warm up, you had to arrive early. If you didn't want to make mistakes, you had to warm up. Usually Neji left lunch ten or fifteen minutes early to get in some practice time, but he had spent longer than usual eating lunch today because his thoughts had been wandering.

Neji listened as the violinists began their part, sweet melodies filling the room, then came clarinets, cellos, and the other pianists. He waited for the familiar measure before his part began, and when it came, his hands moved on their own, expert fingers making the motions they knew so well, the part he had practiced for so long. And when the other instruments died down for his solo, he hardly noticed he was that engulfed in the music. It swelled around him and ran through him, pulsating through every bone in his body. His extra practice had paid off.

The sounds faded, and the song came to a gentle close, and Neji stuck the final note before becoming aware of his surroundings again. He loved the thrill of playing. Yuuhi-sensei then pointed out to a few embarrassed students their small mistakes. Neji was not one of them. They ran through the piece five more times and also worked on smaller sections where timing and pitch needed to be improved.

Then came last period, a study hall. Neji sat at a desk in the back of the room with his French book, English book, sheet music for several different pieces, a notebook full of blank paper and his laptop. Several other students were also typing or using the school's wireless internet connection for research. He turned on his laptop and opened a new Word document. He had to type a French paper, seven hundred words about playing the piano. It wouldn't be a problem though, because Neji was especially good at French.

By the time the half hour long period was over, he had more than five hundred words done, and the paper was due on Monday. It was Friday, meaning that he had the whole weekend to work on it.

After school, he went to the music room where Yuuhi-sensei allowed him up to an extra hour to work on the piece. He often recorded himself playing it and then listened to it back in his room pointing out to himself his minuscule flaws.

Neji practiced for half an hour only today though, because he was too anxious to get back to his, soon to be his and Sabaku no Gaara's, room just incase the other boy arrived He wanted to show his new roommate his side of the room and Neji's. He certainly didn't want anyone touching his stuff.

So at four o'clock, Hyuuga Neji was back in his room studying and finishing his French paper. By dinner at seven, he was still alone, but his French paper and his math homework were finished.

He took off his school uniform, folded it and set it on the bed, and went into his dresser to pull out some clothes for dinner. The students weren't required to wear their uniforms for meals other than lunch, so he found some faded grey jeans and a black T-shirt with a black sweatshirt and sneakers. He wore almost all black, because even the school uniform was black and white.

He went down the stairs at a steady pace until he got to the dining room. Students and teachers were required to attend dinner together and sit with their homerooms. Neji was in Yuuhi-sensei's homeroom. He sat two seats down from her at their dinner table, because they had assigned seats. Normally he would have sat at the end of the table.

Today she came up to him with a question. She wanted to know if he could help get Gaara up to speed on the past two months of music class that he hadn't been here for, since Neji was one of her best students. He agreed, but only because he really had no other choice. In all honesty, he hadn't even met the boy yet, and he already wanted to spend as little time with him as possible.

It would be difficult of course, because they were going to be in the same music class and Neji would be helping him in music, and they were in the same French class he already knew, because Asuma-sensei, Yuuhi-sensei's husband, and also the French teacher had told him so. And like is wife, he had asked Neji to help the new boy get up to speed in class. Also, they were rooming together, and may have more classes together that Neji didn't yet know about. Chances were that they had been given the same schedules so that the new boy could follow Neji around.

He finished his dinner and went back up to his room to continue studying. He had to type a History paper by Monday too.

Neji sat at his desk, still in his clothes from dinner, and took his hair out of his ponytail. It was always cold in the dorm rooms, and having the hair draped over his ears and his arms all the way down to his elbows helped to keep him a bit warmer. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was almost done with all the research he needed, he was a very fast worker, when someone knocked on the door. He got up and opened it, and saw standing there a rather short pale boy with bright red hair, dark sunglasses and a large suitcase with a black backpack slung over his right shoulder.

"Yo." He said, flashing a "V" sign with his right index and middle fingers. Neji was speechless. '_Is this my new… roommate?_' He wondered incredulously.

"You're…" The other boy seemed to pause and think for a moment. "Hyuuga Neji, right? I'm Sabaku no Gaara, nice to meet ya." He stuck out a pale hand. Neji stood in silence for a moment more before grasping the hand firmly and shaking it. He then stepped out of the way to allow the boy into his… their room.

"Um… this is your bed, and that over there is your desk, we've got wireless, there's your dresser… uh, make yourself at home?" Neji was rather uncomfortable to say the least.

He looked over the boy again. He was short. Very short. Neji figured he had at least five inches on him, and he wasn't that tall! He was extremely pale, and his bright red hair made his skin look almost translucent. He wore dark sunglasses so you couldn't really see his eyes, and he had a red tattoo on his forehead. It was the kanji 'ai', meaning 'Love'. He was certainly strange.

He watched as Gaara attempted to haul his suitcase onto the bed, but couldn't lift it high enough. Instead of asking for help though, he put it on the floor and started unzipping it.

"Do you need any help?" Neji tried to ask politely. Gaara glared at him over the rim of his dark sunglasses, kohl covered aquamarine eyes glaring so harshly that Neji almost squirmed. He could practically feel the temperature of the room rising from the heat of his glare.

"Sure," He said nonchalantly. "Could ya help me get this thing onta the tha bed?" Neji nodded, a bit confused by the boy's strange behavior, and lifted the heavy luggage onto the bed in one fluid movement. It bounced slightly when he dropped it on the mattress.

"Thanks." Gaara said before opening his suitcase and pulling his things out. Neji inspected his outfit for the first time. He was wearing baggy black pants with silver chains hanging off of them and a tight, _very_ tight, black T-shirt. He had on big black skateboarding sneakers with odd neon green shoelaces. Neji had to admit though, he looked good. He could pull it off.

Neji watched silently as Gaara unpacked a few more black, red and grey shirts, most plain, but a few with text or pictures on them. Then came the pants. All black, and almost all with chains or studs. In fact, when he was done putting his pants in the drawers, he brought out another handful of individual chains. Neji wasn't sure what one person needed so many chains for, but he continued to stare incredulously as Gaara sorted them out.

Suddenly he stopped and looked up at Neji.

"Are ya just going ta stand there and gawk at me all night?"

Neji was sure he blushed a little before turning away and going back to his desk. He clicked on the internet icon on his computer and decided that he might as well send his weekly e-mail to his uncle. It was one of the things that all members of the Hyuuga family were required to do. Also, Hiashi didn't yet know about Gaara.

_Uncle Hiashi-sama,_

_Preparations for the music festival are going well, as are my studies. I wish also to inform you of a major development._

_I have been assigned a roommate, Sabaku no Gaara. He is a scholarship student from the country of Wind, the first ever. He is also a pianist, but I have yet to hear him play. He has just arrived today, but I will be sure to tell you more as soon as I am able._

_Sincerely,_

_Your Nephew Hyuuga Neji_

Neji jumped when he heard a snicker from behind him.

"Wow, formal." Was all that he said as he read the e-mail over Neji's shoulder. '_I didn't even notice him sneak up on me! How?_' He turned to face his roommate. A stern, reprimanding look in his eyes.

"Sabaku-san, it is rather impolite to read a person's letters over their shoulder without permission." He sounded like a parent chastising a child, and a thin, playful smirk spread itself across Gaara's pale face.

"Sabaku-san? Rather impolite?" He said with a mock British accent even though Neji didn't have one. "You make me feel old! Jeez, call me Gaara, please." Neji frowned slightly. This boy had only just arrived, and already he was working on Neji's last nerve. He decided that maybe it would be best to just change the subject.

"Are you hungry Sabaku-san? You missed dinner." Gaara sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Always with the polite formalities… you rich wierdos. Nope, I'm not hungry. I had an apple for lunch. I'm good." Neji looked at him questioningly.

"Just an apple? And for lunch? Are you _sure_ you aren't hungry?" Normally he wouldn't press the subject, but looking at the boy's thin frame, he couldn't help but be somewhat alarmed.

"Look, I may not be rich, but I'm not stupid. I know when I'm not hungry." Gaara snapped. "By the way, where can a guy find a piano 'round here?" He said a bit more calmly. That was when Neji remembered that he had to give Gaara a copy of the French textbook and the sheet music for the pieces they were playing in music. He reached over to get them out of his bag, and realized that he had forgotten them in the music room during his after school practice.

"Well, you can't exactly play at this time, but I have to go to the music room to get some books that I have to give to you that I seem to have forgotten there, so I can bring you if you would like." Now it was Gaara's turn to look skeptical.

"And you can get inta the school at almost nine at night on a Friday… exactly how?" He asked sarcastically. Neji smirked a bit as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a single silver key.

"I have the key. A privilege of being the soloist. I have to practice more, so Yuuhi-sensei lets me come after and on weekends." He said just a bit more smugly than he had intended. Gaara frowned. "We should get going then. Oh, but you'll probably want to put on a jacket, because you'll going to freeze in only a short sleeved shirt." Gaara looked down at his feet a bit nervously, very out of character.

"Well, ya see, the thing of it is that I only had one jacket, and it got stolen by some rat on the train on my way here. I was gonna go out an' get anotha' one this weekend or somethin'…" Neji sighed, but he felt bad for the boy. He stood up and shrugged the black jacket off his shoulders, handing it to Gaara.

"Here, take it." He went over to his dresser and pulled out a red one. The only red thing he owned, but it was the first one that he could find. Gaara looked like he was going to protest, but Neji walked out of the room before he could. Gaara followed silently, still a bit embarrassed.

They went down the hallways and down the stairs, and into the cold of the night. Gaara shivered, and was glad that Neji had lent him the jacket. He had forgotten that it was already early November, and that it was cold in the Fire Country.

The walked down a brick path covered on either side by perfect green grass and neatly trimmed hedges, and entered a large red brick building. Gaara followed Neji up another two flights of stairs and into a classroom labeled 'Music- Yuuhi'. He inserted the key and pushed to door open.

Gaara was stunned by the sheer number of pianos. There were at least ten expensive looking black standing pianos, and at the back of the room, two magnificent grand pianos. One was white, and the other black. The black one had some papers and a book resting on the bench. Neji walked over to it briskly, and Gaara continued to follow, but instead he went and sat at the white grand piano. Neji looked up and saw him sitting there.

"Do you have a piece ready? You'll need to play something tomorrow for Yuuhi-sensei." Neji's question got no answer though, because Gaara was staring longingly at the instrument before he started to play. It took Neji no more than one measure to recognize the piece. It was the lead that he had been practicing for the past two months of school, and most of his summer.

He played with expert skill, closed eyes following the movement of his hands and bobbing in time with the music. The keys were like an extension of his fingers, the music filling the room like a living being he controlled with his will. Never had Neji heard someone play so beautifully. He was sure that he didn't sound nearly as good when he played. Halfway through the piece, he sat at the black piano and joined in, but he played an octave higher.

Gaara snapped his head up and stopped playing immediately, blushing pink.

"I…I'm sorry. I should've asked…" Neji looked up but continues playing.

"It's okay. You are incredibly talented though." Neji said, still playing. "This is the piece we're working on in class. We're going to perform it at the country music festival, I'm the lead, but I'm afraid you're far better than I am." Although he hated admitting to the other boy that he was superior, he had been raised to give credit where credit was due and to appreciate good playing." Gaara looked down at the floor.

"I'm really not that good. It's just something my uncle taught me when I was ten… before he… died." The last part was said so silently though that Neji didn't hear it. He was just amazed that Gaara had learned something so complicated at such a young age.

"You learned that when you were ten? Incredible, I'm only just learning it now, and I've spent most of my summer and all of this academic year working on it. You should tell Yuuhi-sensei, or maybe play it for your audition piece." He stood up and moved to leave, Gaara following close behind. When they got back to their room, Neji gave him the book and papers.

"This is the sheet music for the piece as well as a few others, although, I'm not sure that you really need it, and this is our French textbook. I was asked by Yuuhi-sensei and Asuma-sensei to help you get up to speed with this year, so just tell me if you've got any questions. Also, how much French do you know?"

"Fluent." Gaara said passively. "My uncle lived in France for a few years." Neji was astounded. This boy was turning out to be quite a surprise.

"Well, looks like we've got nothing to work on for tonight at least. Chances are that you have the same schedule as me, so I'll hopefully there will be time for me to show you around the campus tomorrow." Gaara nodded and took off the jacket, handing it back to Neji.

"Thanks. Maybe you're not as much of an ass as I thought you would be." Neji was taken aback by the comment, but judging from the tone of the boy's voice, he was convinced that it was as close to a compliment as he was going to receive for the time being. He took the jacket back and told Gaara that it was no problem. He checked his watch and realized that even though it was only ten o'clock, he was horribly tired.

"I'm going to go to sleep, feel free to stay up as long as you like, just know that class starts tomorrow at eight. We have a music rehearsal, and you have to audition." Neji went into his dresser and pulled out his pajamas, black pants and black shirt. He changed in the bathroom and crawled into bed.

When he fell asleep, Gaara was sitting at his desk writing something in a notebook while tapping a beat on his knee with the end of a mechanical pencil.

* * *

**Voila! Please R&R, I love to know what you're thinking! I'll love you forever if you do!!! I accept shameless praise, questions, suggestions, and even flames(although they aren't appreciated...)**


	3. Working together, dreaming alone

**Here's chapter 3! Please R&R, not much else to say I guess, don't worry. From now on, I'll be updating chapter by chapter. I just wanted to start off by putting a few out there.**

**Disclaimer: As much as I wish i did, I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_Piano_

Gaara sat at his new desk in his new room right near his new bed writing in his old notebook. He was writing out lyrics and random words to express how he felt at the moment. It was what he did when he felt confused or afraid. Right now, he felt both.

It was his well kept secret that he was gay, and being in a room with such a pretty boy made him horribly nervous. Neji was adorable, no doubt about it. With his pale skin, odd pearly white eyes and long brown hair, how could anyone think otherwise? But it wasn't going to work, because not only was Neji undoubtedly not gay, but he already hated Gaara's guts. He had been so cold and formal all day.

He looked over his shoulder at the boy's sleeping form. His eyes were shut, and his mouth was set in a thin smile. '_Probably dreaming about his girlfriend_'. Gaara thought. He sighed and put down his pencil, closing his notebook. He figured that he wasn't going to get anything done tonight anyway. He was tired and distracted. Maybe it was just his extreme paranoia, but he could have sworn that Neji had seemed rather… almost _angry_ when he had played that piece, and also when he had told him that he spoke fluent French. He was already getting off to a bad start with his new roommate.

He also had to worry about class tomorrow and the audition. New school, and if it was anything like his last one, it wouldn't be good. This was the second prep school that he had gotten into on a piano scholarship, and he never fit in well with any of the rich kids. He had tried at first, but never managed in succeeding. They always found something wrong with him, some tiny little flaw that only the insanely rich with much too much free time on their hands would think of.

Gaara was too lazy to change into his pajamas, and since Neji was already fast asleep, he didn't think the other boy would mind if he just fell asleep in his boxers. He knew he would wake up before Neji anyway, since he hardly ever slept for even four hours straight. He got up and peeled off his shirt, tossing it on the bed, and then pulled off his pants, putting those on top of the shirt. He opened a drawer to shove his clothes back in, and stopped when he heard a noise. He waited, but hearing nothing else, he shoved his clothes into the bottom of the four drawers, and stood. He stretched his arms and bent side to side, cracking his spine as he did so. Four hours in the train had made him very stiff.

Neji woke up a lot in the middle of the night. It was a problem he would have to deal with now that he had a roommate, but hopefully Gaara was already asleep by now. He opened his eyes and was going to just turn over onto his other side when he saw something… strange to say the least. Gaara was in his boxers, bent over shoving something into the drawer. It was too dark to see what, but it didn't really matter. Neji felt the blood rush to his face, and he quickly squeezed his eyes shut and turned over. He only hoped that Gaara wouldn't notice.

What bothered him the most though was the little voice in the back of his head muttering something about Gaara being very hot. He tried to silence the pesky voice, but it refused to rest.

Gaara looked at the sleeping boy once again, but he had turned over onto his other side. That must have been the noise that he had heard earlier. A sudden wave of panic rushed over him as he realized that had Neji had his eyes open at that moment, he would have seen an almost naked Gaara. He had to remember to change in the bathroom from now on.

He went to bed and pulled the cold sheets up to his chin and lay on his back staring at the ceiling. It was strange to be in a new room. Hard to get to sleep, but he had to try. He didn't want to be tired on his first day. Yup, Gaara was a good boy deep at heart.

He fell asleep knowing that the one bright side to his day tomorrow would be that he could spend a lot of time with Neji since he said that they probably had almost the same schedule. Hopefully they could talk and maybe even get to know each other a bit better. Friends was all he asked. Of course, from previous experiences, 'friends' was a bit too much for Gaara to ask.

Gaara woke up at two in the morning and got dressed. He would have taken a shower, but he didn't want to wake Neji who would probably sleep for at least another three hours. It was a good opportunity to try on his new uniform anyway.

He took the outfit out of the top drawer of his dresser. He had just received it yesterday when he arrived. It looked a bit big, but he figured he would deal with it later. The uniform was a pair of straight black dress pants with a white collared shirt and a straight black blazer that zipped up and had a small white border over the zipper, at the collar and on the edges of the sleeves (Anyone ever seen FB? They're like those, I just don't know how to describe it right…). He was right, the pants were a but long and so were the sleeves of the white shirt, but the blazer fit okay. He went to his backpack that he had draped over the back of the desk chair and pulled out a sack of silver safety pins and brightly colored buttons. There were also some needles and thread in the bag. He went back into the bathroom.

An hour and a half later, his pant legs were rolled up and sown to the right length with some safety pins pined in just for show. Gaara knew that his stitches would stay in, because he had been altering hand me down clothing for years. He had sown some small red buttons over the right pocket, and some silvery grey ones over the left one. He took off the small white buttons on the cuffs of the sleeves on his shirt and replaced this with big black plastic buttons, and since the sleeves were too hard to alter, he folded the cuffs up over the sleeves of the blazer. He was pleased enough with his look, but took three chains of different lengths out of the drawer and attached those to the belt loops of the pants on the left side anyway. He took a brush and attempted to make his unruly hair look a bit more acceptable, and then put on a thick rings of black kohl around his eyes. He hooked the arm his sunglasses that he had sitting by the sink in his right pocket, and went back into the room. He would try and read something quietly or maybe listen to some music until Neji woke up.

The clock said it was three forty-five in the morning, so Gaara pulled a CD player and four CD's out of his backpack and a book called 'Dracula'. He was into the whole vampire thing. He found most books about them very interesting. He put the Papa Roach CD 'Getting Away With Murder' into the machine and hit play. He loved listening to '_Blood_' on repeat over and over again, for hours sometimes.

He was sitting on the bed with the pillow propped up against the wall and his knees pulled into his chest listening to '_Blood_' for the eighth time in a row when Neji shifted in his sleep again, this time so he was facing Gaara.

He paused the CD and put down his book and took advantage of the moment to admire Neji's beauty. In his sleep, he really looked like an angel. His hair was splayed around his head wildly and one pale, muscular arm was slipped under the pillow while the other one rested limply at his side. Gaara smiled to himself and put back on his music. He was so lucky to have a roommate like Neji. Even if he was most certainly despised by him.

Neji's alarm went off at five thirty. It almost gave Gaara a heart attack, but he managed to get away with only jumping a bit. He had just turned off his music too. He was reading the sheet music for music class when the alarm started its shrill rhythmic beeping. Neji sat up on his elbow and rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his fist. He seemed very dazed and out of it, something that Gaara found very funny for someone who had been so serious yesterday. He didn't say anything though.

He watched as Neji got up and made the bed neatly.

"Good morning Sabaku-san. You're already dressed? You must wake up rather early." His voice was sleepy and he yawned a bit at the end, but Gaara just stood up and fixed his sheets too. Neji looked at him.

"You… altered it a bit I see…" He said a bit unsurely. Gaara smirked.

"It was big. And anyway, if you people are gonna hate me for being a little different, I might as well be a lot different." The passive defeat masked in his voice made Neji squirm a bit.

"You're not going to be hated. You can't know that." He said, but he sounded unsure himself. Gaara shrugged it off.

"S'okay. I'm used ta it." There was pain in his eyes, but he masked it with cold indifference, and it was gone as quickly as it had come.

"Well," Neji said in a desperate attempt to shift the mood to something a bit lighter, "I'm going to change and go down to the cafeteria for breakfast before the rehearsal. Would you like to come?" Gaara nodded and thanked him for the offer. When Neji went to the bathroom to change, Gaara slipped his wallet into his pocket. He was supposed to get some sort of student charge card eventually, but they didn't have on ready for him yet. He was told that it should be in by Monday though.

When Neji came out, Gaara was stunned again by his beauty. His hair was pulled back and tied off just two inches from the bottom, and the uniform fit his thin muscular frame to perfection.

"Shall we go?" He asked politely. Gaara nodded wordlessly and followed him out. Luckily the cafeteria was just two floors down, in the basement of the dorm building. Neji got a turkey sandwich and a small salad with water, and Gaara got a bowl of some fancy kind of corn flakes and milk. They sat at a table in the back of the large room eating in silence. Neji ate very neatly, wiping his mouth with a napkin every few bites, and Gaara ate as neatly as he was able, making more mess with a milkless bowl of cereal than Neji did with a sandwich and salad. Such was the gap between the rich upbringing and Gaara's somewhat unconventional childhood.

They went back up to their room at six, and Neji went to go take a shower. Gaara almost asked why he got dressed, ate breakfast and then undressed to take a shower, but decided that it wasn't worth it. It was probably some weird rich person thing.

For a boy, Neji took a long time in the shower. He was in there for about half an hour, and when he opened the door, steam and the scent of coconut shampoo came flooding out. It was seven ten exactly Gaara knew, because he was checking his watch every ten minutes. He had gone back to reading while Neji was in the shower. He read a lot. Neji began typing something, presumably schoolwork until seven forty-five, and then he told Gaara to get a notebook and pencil as well as the sheet music he had given him yesterday because it was smart to get to music early. Yuuhi-sensei, he said, was a neurotic fanatic about being on time.

They went to the same music room as they had last night, and they were the third and fourth to arrive. There was a boy with rather frizzy black hair who Neji said was named Shino sitting with a cello and another boy that Neji didn't introduce tuning his violin. Neji walked over to the teacher's desk and said good morning to a woman with long wavy brown hair in a black suit skirt and matching blazer with a white shirt underneath. He introduced Gaara to her, for which he was infinitesimally grateful, he hated introductions, and she told him to go sit at the white grand piano from yesterday. It was the only free piano, and she would have him do his audition as soon as everyone had arrived.

The few students that were there, as well as the ones that were arriving gave him odd stares, looking at his altered uniform disapprovingly. He felt very uncomfortable, but held his head high and walked to the back of the room after Neji who was already there.

Neji was sitting at the black piano practicing some scales to warm up his hands. Gaara knew that he should do the same, but he was suddenly too nervous to. He was thinking about all the things that could go wrong. His depressing train of thought was interrupted by Neji though.

"Don't worry Gaara. You're a very competent pianist, you'll be fine. Why don't you do some warm ups, okay?" he played a scale, and Gaara joined in with him. His heart did a few back flips at the fact that Neji had finally called him Gaara instead of Sabaku-san. They went through a few simple warm-ups, and ten minutes later Yuuhi-sensei called the class to attention.

"Okay, before practice, we have a new student, Sabaku no Gaara, and he's going to be doing an audition piece so we can get to know his style a bit. Everyone please be quiet and respectful. Gaara, what are you going to play for us?" Gaara announced the name of the piece, and the whole class was silent as they waited for him to begin. Or more, they were silent as they waited for him to make a fool of himself.

Gaara was nervous. Incredibly, illogically nervous, but somehow he managed to get his hands to move. They flew over the keys, stopping here and there to add a new note to the mixture of sounds that melded together perfectly. He was very aware of the unforgiving eyes watching him, and almost missed a key, but managed to finish the piece without any technical errors. He didn't feel like he had played as well as he was able though. He brought the song to a gentle fading close, and when he was finished, he got up and made a shallow bow before sitting down again.

Kurenai stood up.

"Very good." She said emotionlessly. Gaara was more than a bit discouraged by her lack of enthusiasm. He knew that he hadn't played to his full ability. "Class, we're going to run through the piece a few times, Neji will play the lead, but Gaara, make sure to listen to him and know when to come in for the lead. Neji will play the lead two or three times, and then Gaara will give it a go." Suffice it to say, both boys were incredibly surprised, not to mention the shock of the other students.

But Neji was also a bit angry. He had been working on that for so long, and now Yuuhi-sensei was just going to casually hand the part over to Gaara? And what made it even worse was that Neji knew Gaara wasn't playing as well as he could. He felt so inferior, something he wasn't used to.

Over the next two hours, they ran through the piece ten times. Neji played the lead for the first three and the last two, Gaara playing all the rest. When class was over, all the students left, and none said anything to Gaara, although a few did give him an almost approving look. Yuuhi-sensei asked the two boys to stay after.

"Neji, Gaara, you are both incredible pianists, and it would be a shameful waste to make either of you play the ensemble part. I have an idea, but I'm going to need both of you to help me with it. I would like to re-write the music for this to make the lead part a duet. What do you think?" She looked at them hopefully, and idea bubbling just below the surface of her sharp red eyes.

Neji wasn't all for the idea, but he knew that for one thing, if he didn't acquiesce, Gaara would certainly get the part, and also, he did honestly think that it could be a good idea. It would bring new life to an old classic piece. Gaara on the other hand didn't look so sure.

He wanted to play the main part, it as one of his favorite songs, but he knew that if he did this, he would probably be resented even more, and Neji would probably dislike him even more than he already did.

"Yes Kurenai-sensei. It sounds like a very good idea. I'll agree if Sabaku-san is alright with it." He sounded genuinely excited about the idea, so Gaara decided to rethink it. Maybe with Neji in his corner, it would work out. It would be fun, and he would get to spend even more time with Neji to write and practice. And, Yuuhi-sensei didn't seem too bad either.

"Okay. I guess I'll do it." Kurenai looked hard at Gaara, searching his face for insecurity.

"I need you to be one hundred percent sure about this Gaara. It's a big commitment." Gaara had forgotten just how strict and serious these prep school types were.

"Yes Yuuhi-sensei. I'm sure. Neji and I will get to work on it today. I don't think either of us has anything to do today that's more important, right Neji?" Gaara looked at the taller boy, facial expression almost pleading him to agree.

"Of course. Sabaku-san and myself would be more than happy to take on this project. Can we meet with you after class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays? I'm afraid that I have soccer on Tuesday and Thursday." He made such a formal sentence sound so apologetic, Gaara had no doubt in his mind that Neji must be every teacher's favorite student. He was glad though that he was learning something about his roommate. They were getting closer and closer to becoming friends, he could just feel it. And yes, he knew that that sounded horrible cheesy.

Kurenai dismissed the two boys, and they were back in their room by ten twenty. Gaara was fully expecting that Neji would crack down on wither schoolwork or the music piece, but he didn't. He got in and grabbed his dark blue backpack, elegantly shoving in another two notebooks.

"Sabaku-san, I'm afraid I have to go to a student council meeting." He took the silver key to the music room out of his pocket and handed it to a slightly stunned Gaara. "This is the key to the music room, Yuuhi-sensei leaves around eleven, so you can go in any time after that. Lunch is at noon, and I should be back by then. You don't have to wear your uniform to lunch on the weekends, so feel free to change." He explained it all to Gaara as if he were a talking to a third grader, but Gaara just listened and nodded.

He had to admit that he was disappointed. But then he realized that it was his own fault. He had put Neji on the spot like that telling Yuuhi-sensei that neither of them had anything more important to do. He should have known that Neji was probably busy. He should have at least asked. He had been very inconsiderate and selfish. Also, Gaara had seen first hand that Neji was good at telling people what they wanted to hear. He had probably so much wanted to believe that someone like Neji would spend time with him that he got ahead of himself. He decided instead to take a look at the music.

Although he had agreed to work on the project, Gaara had never written a duet before. He had written music, but not of the classical genre, and melding together two people playing was going to be very difficult. It was like trying to get two finished mixtures to blend together flawlessly, because it had to be flawless. If there were even any rough patches, the whole thing would fall apart. Also, it might involve changing the ensemble parts for various instruments, and they had less that a month until the music festival. Neji had told him that during breakfast.

Gaara realized after half an hour of thinking that had led him nowhere that he was in way over his head. He had no clue what he was doing, and chances were that Neji already had some sort of idea in his mind about what to do with the project. Gaara didn't want to look like a complete idiot but he was afraid that that was the way it was going to turn out.

Neji was sitting in a student council meeting. They were discussing plans for Konoha Music Academy's annual winter gala, the day aafter the student council meeting. Two representatives from their sister school Konoha Girls Preparatory Academy were present to help, and this year the ball was going to be held at the boy's school. Neji wasn't so much concentrating on the task at hand though, because he found himself thinking about red hair and wonderful melodies.

* * *

**And there you hae it people, chapter 3!!! Please R&R!**


	4. Hyuuga Neji, what a nice name

**Okay, so it would seem that either I didn't put an AN into this chapter, or it deleted it... So here it is!**

**Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Naruto!**

* * *

_Piano_

Neji's meeting got out early, at eleven. He rushed back to his room, hoping that Gaara was still there. He had found that he enjoyed not eating alone, and he didn't want to other boy to feel lonely and confused either. It was only his first day. He also wanted to see if Gaara didn't have anything else to do today, maybe they could work on the music for Yuuhi-sensei.

He stuck the key in the lock and opened the door, and walked back out closing the door as silently as possible trying to retain as much dignity as he was able.

For the second time, he had seen his roommate without a shirt on. At least this time he was wearing pants though. He had opened the door and Gaara had been changing. He must have been changing for lunch Neji figured, even if it was a bit early. A few moments later, the door opened and a very embarrassed Gaara was standing in the doorway looking at his feet.

"Umm, sorry. I should've, uh, changed in tha bathroom or somethin'." His face was pink, even more so than Neji's, and his tight red T-shirt was slightly crooked. He also wasn't wearing any shoes.

"N…No, I should have knocked or something. I'm just… not used to having a roommate…" After another awkward moment, both boys went back into the room. Neji noticed that two of the drawers on Gaara's dresser were open, and his school uniform shirt and jacket were lying on the ground in a heap. Gaara noticed the same thing and went over to clean up the mess. He folded his shirt and jacket and put them on the bed and slammed the drawers shut. Both boys turned to face each other.

"I'm gonna go get changed." Neji announced. He didn't really know why he felt like he had the obligation to tell Gaara, but he had. On afterthought, he felt rather stupid about it. He went over to his dresser and got another pair of grey black jeans and a white shirt. He grabbed his favorite black sweater, the one that he had lent to Gaara, off the bed and went into the bathroom.

He unzipped his blazer and unbuttoned his white shirt. He took the white T-shirt and was about to slip it over his head, but lost his balance slipping on a small puddle of water on the floor. Gaara must have taken a shower. He fell backwards and landed in his butt, hitting his head on the side of the sink. He cried out in pain.

"Ow!" He yelled clutching his sore head. He heard Gaara knocking on the bathroom door.

"Are you okay?" He asked concernedly. "Should I find an icepack?" Neji lifted his hand to his face and saw a small bit of blood.

"Yes please." He said meekly. "Do you know where the school nurse is?" There was a moment of silence between the two.

"No. Neji realized that it was a stupid question. It was Gaara's first day! Of course he wouldn't know where the school nurse was. Neji got up slowly and opened the door, forgetting the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Let's go. I'll show you." Neji said, keeping his voice as steady as he was able with the throbbing pain trying to explode his skull.

Gaara was amazed that he would keep his polite composure in such a situation. He must not realize how much blood was really seeping out of that wound. It was soaking his pale hand and dripping onto the floor. Without a thought, Gaara whipped off his shirt wadded it up and took Neji's hand off his head pressing the balled up shirt in its place. Neji looked like he was about to say something, but shut his mouth when he saw the amount of blood on it. His face drained of all color.

"So… much… blood." Then it hit Gaara. Neji was hemophobic. He was afraid of blood. He was torn between getting his roommate to the nurse and getting the blood off his hands, but decided to go with the later seeing as how he couldn't find the nurse without Neji's help, and he wasn't going to be of much help in this state. He put his hand up on Neji's broad right shoulder and walked him into the bathroom. He wet a small towel sitting on the edge of the sink and started by cleaning off his hand.

He wasn't concerned about the severity of the laceration because he had learned that with head wounds, smaller more insignificant wounds bled much more.

Once Neji's hand was clean, he got rid off the bit of dried blood that had dripped down his neck and cheek. When he was satisfied that Neji was as clean as he could get him for the moment, Gaara bent down and picked up the jacket that the other boy was planning on wearing. He put it on him as best he could and zipped it shut. He wasn't sure if the nurse was in this building or not, and it was freezing cold out. He left Neji standing there and ran out to put on a long sleeved black shirt himself.

"Okay Neji, can you tell me where the nurse's office is?" Neji nodded meekly and walked out the door that Gaara opened for him. The color was already returning to his features and he seemed a bit livelier.

"Thank you. I'm sorry." He said. Gaara smiled up at him and told him that it was okay. He brought them to the nurse's office, and since there weren't many people out at this time, only three people asked them what was wrong, and two more gave them suspicious looks.

Gaara had been right, the nurse's office was in another building. In the same red brick building as the music room, but a floor down. The nurse was a young looking woman who introduced herself as Izumi.

"What happened?" She asked, looking from Gaara to Neji who was leaning slightly on the other boy's shoulder.

"I was changing when I slipped and hit my head on the sink I believe it was. Sabaku-san was kind enough to help me get here and clean some of the blood." She looked a but confused at the lat part of his statement.

"I'm hemophobic." He explained calmly, not nearly as embarrassed as he had seemed when Gaara found out. Hew wondered why that was. Izumi nodded.

"You did well Sabaku-san. Now Hyuuga-san, I'm going to clean that wound of yours, okay?" Gaara was surprised that the nurse already knew Neji by name, and even more surprised that he never thought to ask his roommate's last name. It had been printed on the letter he had received, but he had thrown that out without much thought. '_Hyuuga Neji. What a nice name…_'

* * *

**And of course, if there was no AN up at the top, there's none down here either. This is the one reminfing you to please R&R!!!**

* * *


	5. New discoveries, Making plans

**Thank so much to everyone who reviewed! I just wanted to start out the new chapter with that... I'm so glad that people are likeing the story, and I feel so ultra-special that I alreday have thirteen reviews... I'm not used to getting many.**

**Thanks also to the nice people who informed me that I had written 'homophobic' in the previous chapter instead of 'hemophobic'. For some reason, my spellchecker wouldn't recognize the word 'hemophobic', but it's still my fault for not checking... -sweatdrop- Well, thanks so much!!!! I did however go back and change it.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-san, the uber-genuis. Yup... -sob-, they're all his bishis...  
**

* * *

_Piano_

The two boys got out of the nurse's room twenty minutes later, and as Gaara had suspected, the wound to Neji's head wasn't anything serious. He had a bandage wrapped around his forehead that went under his hair and made it poof up, but that was it. They went back to their room so Neji could change and put on a shirt, and realized then that they were hungry. Luckily, it was only twelve fifteen, and the cafeteria was open on weekends until one. This was also the day of the week that the boys were allowed into town for shopping and other such things. Gaara was planning on getting lunch and then going out to buy a jacket or two and maybe some other clothes if he needed them.

Gaara and Neji were sitting at a small two person table under a weeping willow tree eating sandwiches of some sort in an awkward silence when Neji decided to break the ice.

"Are you doing anything this afternoon, Sabaku-san?" The older boy inquired. Gaara thought about his plans to go shopping, and in a moment of illogical selfishness decided that if Neji could disappoint Gaara by going to a student council meeting, Gaara could disappoint Neji by going shopping. Not that he'd probably be disappointed. In fact, chances are that he'd be happier not having Gaara in his hair- '_his beautiful hair…_' his subconscious chimed in-, all afternoon.

"Yeah, I was gonna go shoppin' or somethin'. Find a jacket or two and maybe some other stuff." As if to emphasize the point, a gust of icy wind blew by and the redhead shivered, rubbing his arms. Neji looked at him sympathetically before shrugging off his own black jacket and handing it to Gaara over the table. Once again, he was giving this same jacket to Gaara.

The redhead looked at him questioningly, but Neji dismissed his concern by telling him that he was fine and that it was the least he could to for helping him out earlier.

"Thanks." Gaara said slipping the slightly too large jacket on for the second time in two days. He looked at Neji in his long sleeved black shirt and jeans, loose strands of hair blowing in the chill November breeze. And once again, Gaara found himself being awed by the Hyuuga's beauty. It just wasn't right for someone to be that pretty.

'_Damn. I just said that out loud, didn't I?_' Neji looked up when he heard the other boy mutter something inaudible.

"Did you say something Sabaku-san?" Gaara's heart did some inner backflips thanking whatever gods may or may not exist that Neji hadn't heard him.

"Nope, nothin'. So…" Gaara said, trying to change the subject. They seemed to be doing that a lot. "You doin' anything after this?" Neji shook his head slightly.

"No. I was thinking of going into town to find something to wear to the Papa Roach concert tomorrow, but it's very cold, so I was rethinking that plan." Normally, Gaara would have spent some time laughing at his roommate in his mind for his horridly polite language, but his shock came before that.

'_Neji… listens to… Papa Roach? He's… going to the… concert? Damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, just, damn._' Although "damn" was the only word he could think of, his mouth was able to say something else.

"You listen to Papa Roach?" he said a bit more incredulously than he had intended. The smallest of small smiles graced the brunette's features for the briefest of brief moments.

"Yes Sabaku-san, you sound surprised. Why is that?" Even though the tone of his voice sounded genuinely surprised, the look on his face said otherwise. There was something in those usually emotionless eyes of his that mocked Gaara for his stereotypical judgment. Something that just screamed, "So rich people can't listen to the same music as you?" Gaara mentally smacked himself.

"You just don't seem like tha type." He said honestly. He shrugged his thin jacket-clad shoulders and offered Neji an apologetic lopsided grin.

'_He looks so cute like that._' Neji found himself thinking. He was constantly fighting that annoying voice in the back of his head telling him that Gaara was "fucking fit" (expression I got from another fic, English way of saying "a fucking hottie"). He had long ago accepted the fact that he may be gay, but it still bothered him to think that he may have a crush on his roommate.

He couldn't exactly place _why_ he had a problem with liking Gaara, but he blamed it on the fact that this was his first gay crush. He was just uncomfortable. But if he was going to take any action whatsoever he told himself, now was the opportune moment (opportune moment… greatest…saying… EVER!).

"Would you like to go to town together?" Gaara's heart did a few more somersaults in his chest. Neji, as in Hyuuga Neji, was asking if he wanted to go shopping. '_Yes! Hell yes!_' his over-excited conscience screamed.

"Sure, why not…" His mouth said much more unenthusiastically than he had wanted. Why did he always seem to do that? Say things differently than he meant to say them… Of course, it was probably better that he didn't sound too excited Neji was probably just asking because he felt bad for him being new and all…

Said boy was currently wondering why Gaara seemed so indifferent every time Neji made an effort to be nice to him. It was a bit aggravating. He was afraid that maybe Gaara thought he was taking pity on him. Of course, it was a rather egotistical train of thought. But he wouldn't be so nice to the younger boy if he didn't like him at least a bit. Had anyone else been his roommate, he would have left them to their own devices. As cruel as it may sound, that was the way Neji was. It was the way he had been raised to be.

But really, Gaara was ecstatic. He was getting to waste the whole afternoon with Neji.

And Neji was very glad. He had a valid excuse to spend the whole afternoon with Gaara.

* * *

**Okay, there's chapter 5!!!! Please review and tell me what you think! I enjoy all comments, good or bad. Please give me you honest opinion. I love shameless praise, comments and questions, and if you hate it and want to burn it and stab the ashes before burning them again, please leave me a flame!!!**

**All reviews, questions, comments etc. will be answered in a PM or in the author insert at the beggining of chapter six. Thanks you again!**


	6. Going shopping, seeing snow

* * *

**So, spurred on by my immense happiness brought about by the insane amount of reviews I recieved for chapter 5, I decided to get up off my lazy ass and fix chapter 6. I'm so happy and I want to thank everyone who reviewed so much!!! I got twelve reviews on one chapter!!! I'm not used to getting more than two or three...**

**Well, this chapter is dedicated to my buddy Sara, known on as Fullmetal Llama. She was my "agent" while I checked my e-mail and answered reviews today in Chinese class (we had free time!), fielding such questions from my classmates as "What's fanfiction?", "You like Naruto?", and of course "What are you doing?" Thank you muchly!!! And of course for telling random people on numerous occasions "No, she is NOT emo."  
**

**So after all that, on with the chapter!**

**No, wait, I lied. Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Naruto today either... Maybe tomorrow. (I love Blurry eyes by L'arcenciel!!!)  
**

* * *

_Piano_

Cold. That was the one word on Gaara's mind. It was so cold here! Why did they call it the _fire_ country if it was so icy cold? In the Wind country where he came from, they had no winters such as these. And the worst part was Neji telling him that it was only going to get colder. November, he had said, wasn't nearly as bad as it was going to get. There wasn't even snow yet.

Gaara was horrified by the idea of snow at this point. He had seen it on TV and thought that it looked beautiful, something he definitely wanted to see for himself, but when his roommate told him that the temperature had to drop to at least freezing, he had stopped being so eager. The simple jacket Neji had lent him wasn't helping much to keep the cold from seeping through and chilling him down to his bones, but the other boy barely seemed to notice. He walked along briskly, hair trailing behind him blown around by the cold gusts of winter wind.

Neji was leading him to some store somewhere. He hoped they had heating wherever they were going. He looked down at his pale hands, frozen and pink from cold. His face was almost numb, and they walked in silence, Gaara figured, because both were much too cold to get out any words. At least, he was. The quiet was a bit disconcerting, but at the same time it was comforting. Every once in a while, Gaara would risk a glance to the left of him, looking at Neji's profile. A sharp nose and high cheekbones, long dark lashes and full, pink lips, a defined chin, he was truly beautiful. His girlfriend was a very lucky person.

Gaara was still convinced that someone like Neji had to have a girl.

They stopped walking in front of one of the many stores. Neji, with his good manners, held the door open for the shorter boy who walked eagerly into the warmth. He looked around him and saw black. A lot of black. It was the kind of store that Gaara would shop in. How did Neji know? He turned to look at said boy, but saw no one there. He looked around, and saw that Neji was already over by a rack of tight black jeans. Gaara sighed softly, feeling a bit alone, but looked around anyway. Seeing a promising jacket, he decided to go investigate.

It was a black hoodie, with an outline sketch of a broken heart on the front in red, with a single drop of blood that very much resembled a tear falling from it. Gaara flipped through hangers on the metal rack looking for a size XS. There was only one left, but a slender hand grabbed it just before he did. Gaara looked up, already preparing a death glare for whatever poor, unfortunate soul dared grab the article of clothing before him.

"Cute." It was Neji. He mumbled something else that Gaara didn't quite catch before handing the sweater to him. Gaara took it from him, still a bit stunned. If he was correct, Neji had mumbled something along the lines of '_like you'_. He shook it off. Of course Neji hadn't said that. Why would he? He couldn't think that Gaara was cute. He must just be hearing things he decided sullenly. That was the only rational explanation.

But there was a nagging voice in the back of his head telling him that nothing in love was rational. He quickly silenced it. That voice never brought him anything but trouble.

They spent another half hour in the store, Gaara looking at various items of clothing, Neji making an occasional one word comment in between shopping for himself. Otherwise, it was a horridly silent affair.

The redhead marveled at shirts and pants before moving on to admire the imaginative earrings and accessories the store held. It was a fairly large place. The walls were painted dark blue with posters of various bands on them, and a few windows framing the snowy wonderland that lay just outside.

The pair shopped a while longer, and Gaara found a pair of black skinny jeans that he liked as well as a tight bright red sweater and a black T-shirt that said 'Gotta love emo boys' on it in red lettering.

When they left, their spoils included the first sweater that Gaara had looked at as well as the pants, sweater and shirt. Neji had a similar pair of straight black jeans, a red tank top and a black fishnet long sleeved shirt. They had gotten some nice accessories too. Gaara got a pair of silver skull and crossbones stud earrings and a matching studded bracelet and collar, and Neji had bought some of those thin black rubber bracelets and another bracelet made of five chains attached to each other as well as a small silver cross pendant on a brown leather cord.

Intrigued by the sudden change in clothing style, Neji had explained to him that it was his outfit for the concert the next night.

Gaara had been surprised to say the very least. He hadn't thought Neji the type to wear such... for lack of a better word, revealing… clothing, but was sure that he would look wonderful in anything he wore.

And so began the long, grueling walk back "home". Biting wind whipped around them, numbing any and all exposed skin. And to top it all off, it began to snow.

Two blocks away from the entrance to the school's extensive campus, fluffy white flakes began raining down from the cloudy grey sky. The fell and landed softly on everything. Neji just pulled his hood on and began walking faster, but Gaara stopped and stared at his hand in wonder.

In his icy cold palm rested a tiny feather of snow, tens of tiny flakes frozen together in a miniature snowball. And then another, and another, and another. He could only gaze incredulously at the tiny miracles coming down from the Heavens, because that was what he believed them to be. He had never seen real snow before.

Neji stopped when he didn't hear the rhythmic sound of another pair of footsteps following his. He gripped his hood tight against the strong winds and turned around. Gaara stood on the sidewalk, melting snow making his red hair glisten delightfully, staring in a daze at his palm. In it, snow was gathering in a small mound. It was like… like he had never seen snow before.

'_But what if he hasn't?_' To Neji, someone who had been born and raised in this part of the Fire country, the idea seemed preposterous, impossible. But if he remembered correctly – and he always did – Gaara was from the desert in the Wind country. It doesn't snow in the desert. He retraced his steps so he was standing behind the shorter boy, watching over his shoulder as more and more white flakes fell atop one another.

"You like the snow?" He whispered softly just above Gaara's left ear, hair tickling his jawbone as he spoke. The redhead jumped a bit and turned to face his roommate, eyes wide. Neji laughed a bit. Not something he did often, but the look on Gaara's face was just priceless. He looked scared, shocked and amazed all at the same time. If that was even possible. Put all those emotions on a face as perfect as his, add to it the thin sheen water from melted flakes of snow, and you end up with a scene worth drooling over. If you were Hyuuga Neji that is. But of course, being Neji, that was something he would never do. He maintained his composure in all situations, no matter what. Even if it was insanely difficult not to hug the boy then and there.

"Is it your first time? Seeing the snow I mean." The question hardly registered in Gaara's mind. He was able to nod slightly, but his brain was focused on other things. Like how Neji was standing so close to him, a crown of silvery crystals adorning his hooded head.

"Come on, I'll show you something." Neji grabbed Gaara's hand and walked off briskly, dragging the smaller boy along behind him. Despite the freezing cold, Gaara felt a rush of heat to his face as he lost the battle against the blush spreading across his already pink cheeks. Neji was holding his hand.

* * *

**Wee!!! Well, that was fun, a teeny tiny bit of NejiGaara in that one, but it gets better next chapter! Still just shonen-ai though. I don't think I'm ready for a full-out yaoi smut, and neither are Gaara and Neji...**

** Please review, you know how much I love those!!! And they'll all be answered in a PM. Like I've said before, I love shameless praise, questions, comments, suggestions, and if you hate it, flame to your heart's content. I just want to know people's honest opinions.**

**MyMidnightLove  
**


	7. Beautiful sights, beautiful feelings

**I am simply astounded by the amount of reviews this story hasa gotten. 13 reviews in just the last chapter! I'm so glad that people are enjoying this, and I've gotten such great reviews! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewes, I love you all!!!**

**I'm really sorry that the update is a day late... I forgot to edit the chapter last night and I ended up doing it late at night and I had to go to bed before I finished... So here it is, a day late!**

** Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine, and I don't make any money off of this.  
**

* * *

_Piano_

After being dragged past shops, office buildings, and houses, Gaara was sure that he was going to die of cold any moment now. They had been running for over five minutes, and Neji's surprisingly warm hand had slid up a bit and was now clenched tightly around his slender wrist, leading him to some unknown place.

Snow was still falling in flakes, coming down even harder now in a steady rhythm. Everything was covered under a half inch thick blanket of white, but still Neji kept going. He weaved expertly through streets and down an alley to two, and it was obvious to the redhead that his roommate really knew what he was doing. Gaara was following blindly, concentrating on keeping the feeling in his body when then they stopped abruptly.

Neji looked back at the redhead and smiled softly. Gaara looked around himself in amazement. He hadn't even noticed that they had gone uphill! But here they were, surrounded by trees overlooking the school campus from maybe a mile away, on a ledge of dirt carved into the side of a big hill and surrounded on three sides by dense trees. There was a small dirt path leading up, two pairs of footsteps disturbing the clean white. There was some trash strewn on the ground, visible still under the snow, but something as insignificant as that couldn't take away from the beauty of the moment.

Shining crystals fell through the darkening sky, and a breathtaking sunset was the only light as pastel colors spread quickly across the vastness in every shade of red, orange, pink and yellow. The cold air hit Gaara's wrist as Neji released him and walked over to the ledge, sitting down gracefully dangling his legs over the end. Had Gaara been able to see his face, he would have seen a rare faraway and detached look in those mysterious pearly eyes.

Of course, Neji never let anyone see him vulnerable or afraid.

After recovering from the initial surprise, Gaara walked over to the brunette slowly, hearing the unfamiliar yet pleasant crunch of snow beneath his sneakers. He looked down at the school, and realized just how vast the campus really was. He wondered if he would ever really be able to find his way around it. He flopped down on the dirt, not nearly as graceful as the older boy, and looked down. Even though the vantage point wasn't that high, everything looked so much smaller and less terrifying from up here. He felt bigger, like all his problems were much less significant.

He looked again at Neji's sharp profile. He was just as stunning as every, but his eyes though were different though. It was as if he wasn't really there. Like his mind was in some far off place, and only his body was left, an empty shell, stranded by its wandering soul.

An empty cage, whose bird had finally managed to escape. (_Is that too weird and "philosophical" sounding?_)

But Gaara could understand how Neji could loose himself in a place like this. The whole atmosphere just lent itself to relaxation and understanding. A great realization donned on him then, and he began to wonder if maybe Neji wasn't always as composed as he looked. Perhaps there was a softer, more vulnerable side to everyone, even his stoic roommate.

Gaara was thinking about his new theory when he felt a warm weight over his shoulders. Neji had draped his left arm over the smaller boy's back, hand resting on the top of his thin left arm. They turned to face each other, and their noses were less than an inch apart. Gaara could feel the blush rushing to his cheeks and he was sure that his face must be the same color as his hair. Neji on the other hand, looked as calm and cool as ever, but there was something in his eyes that Gaara couldn't quite place. It wasn't sad or detached like before, but happier and more playful… was it perhaps lust? Maybe Gaara had been wrong earlier. Apparently Neji was always as composed as he seemed.

"It's getting late." The taller boy whispered, so soft it was almost inaudible. Gaara nodded meekly, not liking the thought of leaving this nice place, this nice position, this nice feeling, even though it was cold.

"We should go." Again, the brunette's voice was no more than a whisper on the wind.

Neji leaned forward excruciatingly slowly, and closed the distance between them, placing his warm lips on Gaara's cold ones for just a moment before breaking all contact and standing up. He held his hand out to Gaara who was still sitting and blushing madly. Neji smirked mentally and leaned down, grabbing the hand that had been supporting him on the snow, causing him to almost fall flat on his back. Luckily, Neji caught him at the last second and hoisted him up.

The two began their silent walk back to campus.

When they got back, Neji let go of Gaara's hand and led him back to their building. They walked up the stairs in a comfortable quiet, and Neji opened the door, holding it open for the smaller boy who shuffled in quickly, just glad to be back and out of the cold.

They changed, Gaara in the room and Neji in the bathroom because he took longer. He pulled the hair tie out and let his brown hair hang free before brushing it out carefully. One hundred strokes exactly. It was a bad habit that he had picked up from his family members, since most Hyuugas, even the men, had long hair. He was a perfectionist.

Changing into a pair of loose black pants and a baggy white shirt, he stepped out of the bathroom. Gaara was already sitting in his bed, huddled up under the covers wearing the hoodie he had bought earlier that day. Neji could see that it was still a bit wet from the snow and that even wearing the jacket, the younger boy was shivering a bit. He really wasn't good with the cold. Neji went into his dresser and pulled out a white fleece blanket. He tossed it carefully, and it landed perfectly on the end of Gaara's bed. The redhead looked up in surprise from the book he was reading.

"Thanks." He said as he grabbed it and wrapped it over his shoulders, hugging it tight around his small frame.

"You're welcome." Neji said before crawling into his own bed. He needed to get a lot of sleep tonight to make up for the fact that he was going to a concert on a Sunday night. He knew it wasn't smart, he had classes on Monday, but he absolutely loved Papa Roach. Another one of the few irrational things in his life, like his strange fascination with the peaceful redhead a few feet away who was currently engrossed in whatever novel he was reading.

He turned over onto his right side so he could sneak a glance at Gaara, who didn't notice because his attention was focused on the book in his hands. A small smile spread across his face before he shut his white eyes and fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

* * *

Okay, so there's chapter seven for ya!! Please R&R, I lurv getting shameless praise, questions, comments, suggestions, ideas and if you hate it, please say so!!! 

Shameless advertising: I posted a new fic! It's called The Last Time Coming Home, and so far it's a oneshot. But if you like it, please review and I might continue it! It's also a GaaNeji, but there's characterdeath and it's kind of sad. If you want to know more, you're going to have to read it!!! I'm so evil.


	8. Nightime and nightmares

**I'm soooooo sorry that this chapter didn't come out sooner!!! FF net was being mean to me and wouldn't let me upload!!!**

**Well, i was gonna post this the day after Easter and my plan was to say happy belated Easter and Passover and stuff, even though I'm kind of atheist... Please don't take offense!**

**Well, I hope this chapter is good, I know it's kind of wierd, but I wanted to add some past to Gaara as to why he's always so cold and stuff.**_

* * *

_

_Piano_

Night.

Gaara loved the night sometimes.

Tonight was not one of those times.

Nights were dark and silent. They lent themselves to thought, minds wandering aimlessly for hours on end with no one to stop them or pull you back from the dangerous places you sometimes managed to land yourself in. Some nights, the thinking was good.

Tonight was not one of those nights.

Tonight, thinking only led to memories. Memories for Gaara were painful and better left untouched.

He thought of all the times that he had been told to leave, never asked, which was what made all the difference in the world. And of all the times someone told him that no one wanted him, or that he was a freak and a monster, told that no one would ever love him or want him. It was all too much. But in the night, there was no one to bring him back from the darkness within him, it just went on and on, falling into forever.

His book was lying open on the bed, long forgotten. The blanket Neji had lent him was in a pile on the floor, he was too hot for such things right now. He was burning. He was on fire from the inside out. His thin white sheets were bunched up at the foot of the bed, his legs hugged close to his chest. His face was down, forehead resting on his knees, wild red hair flying in all directions. His eyes were screwed shut, and he had his pale arms folded over his head, a shield protecting him from all the dangers outside.

The only problem was that the dangers were inside.

He was panting hard, breath coming in short gasps. He couldn't remember where he was anymore, only that he wanted to be somewhere else.

_**These memories are playing like a film without a sound**._

There they were, there were so many of them. The painful times, the spiteful words, the hateful looks, all laid out for him to see again. The pain was just as fresh as it had been two weeks ago, three months ago, just as raw as six years ago.

_-flashback-_

_Gaara ran down the hall, small feet making slapping sounds as they hit against the polished wood of the floors._

"_Yashamaru! Yashamaru! Where are you? I want to show you something!" In his hands he held a small brown-feathered bird. Its right wing was bent at an odd angle, but it didn't look to be in too much pain._

_Gaara's uncle Yashamaru was a doctor._

"_Yashamaru!!! Where are you?" He rounded a corner, peering into the living room. No one was there._

"_Where are you Yashamaru?" He looked into the kitchen, not there._

"_Where are you?" He checked in the study. Not there either._

_Slowly his excited calls turned into frantic screams._

"_Where are you Yashamaru??? Where are you?" Tears were welling up in his eyes now. The only place left in the house that he hadn't looked was his uncle's bedroom. He was never supposed to go in there. He remembered very clearly that Yashamaru had asked him to please stay out of his bedroom._

_Gaara didn't like being alone. Temari was out watching a movie with some of her friends, and Kankuro was at a birthday party for one of his friends. He didn't like being alone though, because when he was alone, his imagination got the better of him. Every shadow on the wall became a monster, every gust of desert wind was a desperate cry for help._

_Fear was slowly creeping in on him, and Gaara decided that he would deal with his uncle's scolding later. Right now, he just really didn't want to be alone. He opened the basement door with one hand, careful not to drop the bird, and walked slowly down the stairs. He went down the cement-floored hallway to the only door, and knocked. No one answered._

_Gaara was panicking now._

_Only twenty minutes ago, Yashamaru had asked him to go play outside while he made lunch. Surely he wouldn't be taking a nap already._

_As soundlessly as he was able, Gaara turned the silver knob and pushed the door open. Yashamaru lay on the white carpeted floor, a pool of crimson blood surrounding him. A stained knife lay in his right hand, two large gashes on his wrists. He turned his gaze towards the petrified redhead in the doorway and smiled sadly._

"_Sorry. I didn't want you to have to see this."_

_Gaara screamed._

_-end flashback-_

'_Why? Why do I have to see it again? Why is he haunting me? It's not my fault!_'

"It's not my fault." He whispered slowly to himself, repeating it over and over again like a mantra. He began rocking himself back and forth gently.

"It's not my fault… It's not my fault… It's not my fault…" he was oblivious to the world around him. The walls of his mind were closing in, threatening to crush him. His breathing grew ragged and he began to sweat. He was claustrophobic. But the walls were closing in around him, uncaring of his fear. The cold darkness stifled the scream in his throat, covering him like a heavy blanket. He was hot. Too hot. He couldn't deal with it. Surely he was going to die here.

A cool arm wrapped around his shaking shoulders, and Gaara realized that he was sobbing. He felt the cool hand rub comforting circles on his back, a soft voice whispering comforting words into his ear.

"Shh… It's okay Gaara. Just breathe." Two hands wrapped themselves around Gaara's wrists, lifting his arms off his head and putting them down by his sides. Fingers ran through his messy hair in a steady, calming rhythm. Slowly he lifted his head up, wet tears glistening on his pale cheeks, bloodshot eyes stared up to the kind person.

Somehow, he thought it might just be

"_Yashamaru!"_

_Gaara ran to his uncle. Tears were streaming down his face._

"_It's okay Gaara. Please, just breathe." His breath was coming in short gasps. "I didn't want you to have to see it. You'll be alright though." A spark of hope lingered somewhere in those depthless, innocent aquamarine eyes._

"_So… you're going to be okay, right?" Yashamaru smiled grimly._

"_I hope not." Something in him shattered then. He snapped._

"_Why!" He yelled._

"_Shh… It's okay Gaara. It's not your fault."_

_-end flashback-_

But it was Neji. His eyes were concerned, his posture tired. His brown hair was messy and thrown into a careless ponytail that was falling over his right shoulder. One arm rested at his side, the other was wrapped around Gaara's thin shoulders.

"Are you alright now?" Gaara's throat was too dry to speak, so he nodded. Neji looked unsure.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Gaara shook his head no.

"Sleep now then." The older boy said gently. He ran his slender fingers through the red hair one more time before placing his hand firmly on Gaara's shoulder. He looked very serious, like he was about to say something. But he didn't. He took his hand away and turned, climbing back into his own bed.

Gaara shifted so that he was lying down under the sheets, and stared at Neji's broad back. '_I wonder what he was going to say…_' He thought curiously before drifting into sleep.

'_Don't be afraid, Gaara. I don't want you to ever be afraid._'

* * *

**Waaaah! My thumbs hurt!!! I guess hours of playing the PS2 will do that to you... We just got Naruto; Ultimate Ninja, and even though I know it's not the most recent game, it's a lot of fun, and I don't suck _too _bad... Well, at least not all the time.**

**Please R&R you know I love shameless praise, comments, questions, and if you don't like it, please be honest and tell me so. I'll answer every review in a PM!!!**

**Oh, and to those like me, HAPPY SUMMER BREAK!!!!**

**Random note (i'm sorry this AN is going on so long), I may not update for a while again because my muse is dead and I have chapter 9 written, but I really really hate it... I hated it so much that when I reread it, I realized half of it didn't even make sense!!! -happy dance- wow... no more cheesecake for breakfast. So, that's it, and to those who read all the way through this AN, I appreciate it muchly!!!**


	9. Mind games and photographs

**Okay, here's chapter nine!! I'm excited because I just went to AnimeBoston yesterday, and even though I'm dog-tired, it was so awesome that I can't help but be all bouncy. It was my first convention!  
**

**But I hope people like it, and I'm warning, updates will be longer in between from now on...**

* * *

_Piano_

Morning came, and Neji woke up ten minutes before his alarm. He made sure to shut it off, so that it wouldn't wake his sleeping roommate. Five twenty was very early to be up on a Sunday. Neji looked around the room, and walked over to the window. The shades were drawn, so he lifted up the bottom of the white plastic a few inches and looked outside. It was sunny, but frigid. He could tell from how the glass burned cold against his warm palm. There was a thin layer of snow from last night resting on top of everything, giving the world a winter wonderland kind of look.

Neji decided he would go out for a jog.

He grabbed one of his notebooks and removed a piece of paper, ripping it out carefully, making sure to tear along the perforated edge. He clicked the button on the end of a black ballpoint pen, and wrote a note to his roommate in his neat cursive hand writing.

_Sabaku-san,_

_I am going out for a jog. I should return around the time of breakfast._

_Hyuuga Neji_

Satisfied with his note, he left it on Gaara's desk and went to go change.

Out of his chest of drawers, he pulled black jogging pants and (for lack of a better word) a white men's tank top. He changed in the bathroom, put on white ankle socks, his black sweater and a pair of black sneakers.

He looked one last time at Gaara's sleeping form before heading out.

It was cold outside, but it didn't bother him too much. The snow was already melting, and streams of dirty water ran down into the drains on the sides of the streets. Neji jogged on, watching as the lights in the houses of the neighborhood turned on one by one. He ran past men and women leaving to work, dressed in smart suits, and driving expensive cars.

His parents had been very much like these people.

Or at least, that was what he had been told by his uncle Hyuuga Hiashi on the few occasions that he would speak of his twin brother and sister-in-law.

Neji jogged on in the direction of the residential district, the opposite side of town from the shopping district. He looked at some of the houses, and was struck for the first time by how big they were.

They were just unnecessarily large. These four or five story mansions with acres of land and tennis courts, in-ground pools, and Jacuzzis were too big for the four or five people that lived in them. Of course, that was being hypocritical.

Neji had lived in a mansion at least three times the size of most of these. It was a traditional Japanese house, fenced in by a huge stone wall, and divided into many smaller houses. During the time he had lived with his uncle, Neji had lived in the biggest house. His uncle was the leader of the clan.

He stopped running at the base of a long, twisting driveway. At the top of the hill was a huge pale yellow mansion with flawless emerald grass and neatly trimmed hedges. He leaned over and rested his hands on his knees, panting.

He didn't like running, even though he played forward on his school soccer team.

His long ponytail slipped over his right shoulder, hanging limply by his side. He shook his head violently, tossing it into place on his back.

* * *

Gaara woke up and rubbed his eyes sleepily. He groaned a bit and looked around the room, wandering eyes landing on the clock. 

It was already six fifteen. The redhead's aquamarine eyes widened in amazement. He had slept for so long! He looked around the room again.

The bathroom door was open, the light was of, and Neji was nowhere to be seen. There was a piece of paper resting on his desk that he didn't remember putting there too.

Gaara pulled himself out of bed and dragged himself over to the table. He looked at the piece of paper, but it took a moment for its message to register.

He suddenly remembered something that his older sister Temari had once told him. The more you slept, the more tired you were when you woke up. He inwardly sighed.

He racked his brain to remember what he had been told about breakfast on weekends. The cafeteria should be open until eight today.

Gaara trudged over to the bathroom and took an abnormally long shower, lasting a bit over half an hour. He changed, slipping into a tight red T-shirt and black jeans, with his new sweater over it, and ran a hand through his hair a few times en lieu of combing it before putting on his shoes. He took a brief look in the mirror, and left.

Gaara was eating cereal in the cafeteria when Neji showed up. His opalescent eyes were scanning the large room when they landed on his roommate, and a look of recognition flashed across his pale face. He walked over to the younger boy with a small salad and a bottle of water. Gaara checked the black digital watch on the bottom of his left wrist. It was seven fifteen.

"Good morning Sabaku-san. Do you mind if I sit here?" He asked politely as usual. Gaara shook his head.

"Nope." He tried to discreetly use his napkin to wipe away the drop of milk next to his glass. He was sure that Neji's eyes darted over to his moving hand, but because of the boy's strange lack of pupils, he couldn't be positive. If he did notice, he was courteous and said nothing.

After an irritable silence, Gaara spoke.

"So, how was your run?" He asked off-handedly.

"I don't much enjoy jogging, but the snow outside was wonderful. Impossible to resist going out." His formal speech was beginning to get really old, really fast. Gaara mentally smirked as he came up with his "Evil Master Plan". He wasn't sure if he could pull it of, and either way he'd look like a fool, but it was worth a try.

"Ah, I see." He said, mustering the most polite tone he was able. He sat up straighter, looking Neji directly in the eye, and put one of those small fake smiles on his face that the rich so often wore.

Neji noticed the sudden change in Gaara's behavior immediately. The formal response instead of his usual, curt answers, and the way he sat up straighter, staring him directly in the eye. It was a bit unnerving really.

But what bothered him the most was that cheesy smile. It made him look exactly like every other rich clone at the school, himself included, and for some reason that angered the Hyuuga boy. He didn't want to see Gaara's individuality die out. The boy was like a welcome breath of fresh air in the dull, daily routine of high-society life.

Neji's worry escalated when Gaara didn't revert back to normal right away, but luckily there was something in his eyes that betrayed him. His eyes were still mischievous and calculating as ever. He was messing with the Hyuuga boy.

But two could play at that game. It was a stretch, but for Gaara, it was worth it.

"So, didja sleep well?" He said, slouching his shoulders some. He was sure that he sounded ridiculous, but one thing that he had learned was never to show anyone your fear. He put on his emotionless mask and waited for Gaara's response.

The redhead was caught a bit off-guard by the sudden drastic change in his roommate's attitude, but fought to keep his cool.

"Very well, thank you for asking. And yourself? I couldn't help but notice that you woke up very early this morning." It was all he could do to keep from cracking up just listening to himself talk. He sounded like a complete moron.

Both boys were very adept at changing their personalities quickly and unexpectedly, but Neji had the benefit of years of teaching himself to betray no emotion in any situation. Gaara on the other hand was used to just feeling cold. He didn't play games like this, and the emotions he was used to were indifference and anger. This was all very new to him.

That didn't mean, however, that he wasn't playing very well.

"Couldn't sleep." Neji said, brushing off the other boy's question as if he had something to hide. His plan worked to perfection, and Gaara leaned forward just a tiny bit.

"And my I ask why you weren't able to fall back asleep?" He said coyly, a small smirk in place on his face now instead of that characterless smile.

Not wanting to be outdone, Neji decided to take the game a step further.

"I was dreaming." He said. When the younger boy's eyebrows (I know they're not really there, but I needed them to be!) raised just a fraction of an inch, he further elaborated on his excuse.

"I was dreaming…" he said slowly, "Of you." He leaned back in his seat and watched Gaara's reaction.

The smirk was no longer on his face, and he looked very surprised to say the least. His eyes were wide, and he was leaning his forearms on the table. But best of all, there was a light blush rising to his pale cheeks. Neji risked a brief show of emotion, and smirked before getting up and putting his plate on the conveyor belt.

He walked away silently, back to their room, not even looking back at the shocked redhead.

Gaara watched, awed, as Neji left him. He stared as the boy's ponytail swayed ever so slightly with each step he took, and wondered dazedly how even in jogging pants and a sweater, he still managed to look amazing.

He sat there for a moment longer before getting up and putting his own glass and bowl on the conveyor belt. He followed his roommate's model and went up to their room.

By the time he got there, Neji was already in the shower. The door was closed, but there was a bit of yellow light seeping out through the crack at the bottom of the doorframe. (The rest of this paragraph is courtesy of Hotaru-ai, edited a bit by myself) Gaara could hear the hot water rushing down out of the showerhead, and his mind started to wander. The image of Neji in the shower, dark hair wet against pale skin, a beautiful contrast in colors. The water running down his face over the pale pink lips, down his strong chest, over his toned abdomen…

He dragged his unwilling, dirty mind back into reality, and sat on his bed. He pulled his knees up to his chest and smacked his forehead against them painfully a few times before stretching them out again and putting his hands behind his head.

This was going to be a long year.

* * *

Neji rinsed the conditioner out of his long hair and breathed in the steam from the hot water. 

He thought about breakfast with Gaara. Maybe he had taken it too far?

Of course, he hadn't been lying. Gaara had been in his dream, and he hadn't been able to sleep well. He just didn't think they were related. Or maybe he didn't _want_ to think that they were related…

Neji's dream had been about the day that Gaara arrived. But, looking back on it in a dream, he had to admit that he looked foolish. Gaping at the redhead like he was another species, berating him, and acting like he was so superior. He truly was foolish.

He sighed to no one in particular. Oh well, there was nothing he could do about it now. First impressions were first impressions, and all he could do was be a better person from now on.

Neji decided that he wanted to get to know a bit more about the boy, because he realized that he knew almost nothing about him except maybe his name and that he had never seen snow before.

He turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, toweling himself dry before carefully blow-drying his hair back into place. When he was done, he changed into black pants and a long sleeved white shirt. He came out of the bathroom and put his jogging clothes into the hamper he kept under his bed. He would have to do his laundry soon.

He looked to Gaara who was sitting on his bed with his eyes closed, deep in thought about something. He decided that he wouldn't disturb the boy just yet. He took the silver cell phone off his desk and turned it on, looking at the time on the small LCD screen on the front.

He shoved the phone in his right pocket. He sat at the desk and turned on his laptop. He decided to send another e-mail to his uncle. Even though he hated sending more than the required one a week, he decided he should tell him about the project he and Gaara had taken on. He would surely hear about it anyway, and Neji would be in trouble if it wasn't from him.

_Uncle Hiashi-sama,_

_I wish to tell you about a development involving the plans for out school performance at the Fire Country Music festival next month. The new student, and my roommate that I told you about in my previous letter, Sabaku no Gaara, has proven himself to be an exceptional pianist. The two of us have been asked by Yuuhi-sensei to rewrite the lead part of our piece into a duet for the two of us to play. Both of us have agreed._

_Greetings to the Hyuuga clan,_

_Your nephew Hyuuga Neji_

He sent the letter, and looked again at Gaara. The redhead boy was now staring intently at Neji.

"Do you have any siblings, Sabaku-san?" He asked, staring right back at the younger boy. He looked a bit surprised by the random question, but got up off his bed and pulled a small black wallet out of his backpack.

Out of the wallet he extracted a photo.

"Two." He said simply, showing the older boy the picture.

From his place at his desk, he couldn't see the paper very well. Neji got up and went over to Gaara's bed, snatching the picture gracefully out of his small, pale hand.

It was a photo of a blonde girl with her hair in four odd, short ponytails and a boy with messy brown hair and a lot of odd purple eyeliner. And if he wasn't mistaken, purple lipstick also.

"Kankuro and Temari." The redhead said, answering Neji's unspoken question. He nodded silently, still staring at the photograph. It looked like one of those photos that come in sets of four on a small strip out of a photobooth in a mall. There were three small red hearts in the upped left-hand corner, and the people looked happy. Almost like they could be a couple, except for the fact that there was a third person. This third person, however, didn't look happy at all. He had red hair, and was staring straight ahead while the girl gave him "bunny ears" with her fingers and the boy was poking the side of his head with two fingers, imitating a playful gun.

"You gonna drool over my ugly sister and crazy brother much longer?" Gaara asked impatiently. Neji pulled his eyes away from the cute picture and saw Gaara, resting on his bed, legs crossed at the ankles.

Instead of giving the photo back, Neji continued to sit, looking at Gaara.

"You're lucky." He said. "I have no siblings, only my cousin Hinata-sama, but we're not very close." He sighed dejectedly, putting the paper down on his desk.

"She's very friendly though, very kind." He looked a bit dreamy, and Gaara couldn't place it, but he was almost sure that the pang he felt in his chest was jealousy. He wanted Neji to look happy like that when he thought about him.

"In fact," He added on an afterthought "She attends Konoha Girl's Preparatory Academy, and will be at the dance next month." He smiled, and looked back at the younger boy. He noticed the almost hurt expression the boy wore, and quickly changed the subject.

"I apologize. I must be boring you with these foolish stories. Would you like to tell me about our siblings?" Gaara heaved a heavy sigh and heaved himself up from the bed. Walking over to his roommate's desk, he leaned over the other boy's shoulder, who courteously moved out of the way, and took the picture off the table. He pointed towards the girl.

"Temrai." He said. "She listens to bad music and she listens to it too loud. She can't cook anything, but she's dating the guy at the Chinese take-out place down the street, so the food mysteriously arrives at our house ten minutes faster than it does to our neighbor's." A tiny smile graced his face for the briefest of moments as he reminisced.

"And that one's Kankuro." He said as he motioned towards the boy with the odd makeup. "He's got a weird thing for purple makeup and he designs puppets. Yeah, he's kind of odd. He can't cook either, but his music is better and his stereo is louder." Neji looked a bit confused, so Gaara explained it to him as if he wee spelling it out step by step. The brunette could tell that he was enjoying every moment of this superiority.

"When he and Temari have a 'whose stereo can go louder' contest, he usually wins." Neji thought it was a bit of an odd concept, because no one would ever dare to do anything like that in the Hyuuga household. The redhead smirked.

"No, I guess it's not something you do very often…" He said cautiously. "You… rich people." The way he said it, it wasn't intended to sound mean or spiteful, just like he wasn't really sure if what he was saying was correct.

"No, I suppose it isn't. I don't listen to much music." He looked down at his feet, then stood up. He realized again how much shorter than him his roommate was. "Sabaku-san, what kind of music do you listen to?" He looked genuinely interested in Gaara's answer, so the shorter boy decided not to ignore the question.

"Eh, mostly stuff like Papa Roach, Marilyn Manson, Switchfoot, Three days grace, some of the Bloodhound Gang music is funny, but also some older stuff like Prince, Fleetwood Mac, or the Police. Sometimes even the Beatles. Of course, you can't forget J music. Like L'arcenciel, Porno Graffitti, and Dir En Grey."(Basically what I listen to…) The pale boy sat cross-legged on the carpeted floor by the base of the desk chair, so Neji sat back down in it. He was surprised by the length of the answer, and the variety of music. Gaara held the picture of himself and his siblings tightly in his small, pale hand.

"So, your cousin… Hinata, right? What kind of music thing does she do? Violin or something?" Neji looked down at the redhead fondly.

"She's a singer. She's performing with the choir at the dance." Gaara nodded. Neji looked happy, daydreaming about his cousin.

"Do you have a picture of her?" Neji blinked at the sudden intrusion into his thoughts and nodded. He took a glossy photo out of the top drawer of his desk and handed it to Gaara. The photo was of a beautiful girl with pale skin and black hair with an almost blue tint wearing jeans and a plain yellow T-shirt. Her eyes were the same beautiful pearl as her cousin.

"She's pretty." The redhead mumbled absentmindedly.

Neji's heart sank a bit when he heard that. It saddened him to think that Gaara was probably more interested in Hinata than him. He sighed in his mind. He should have expected as much.

"Yes, she is…" Gaara noticed that his roommate sounded odd, dare he say it… disappointed? "I'll introduce you to her if you'd like." Not knowing how to respond, or even what to say, Gaara answered that he would love to meet her.

Photos were exchanged back to their proper owners, goodnights were said, and both boys fell into a disturbed sleep, plagued with dreams.

For one, birds soared across the sky, free and wild and happy, while below them the wonderful snowy landscape stretched on for miles.

The other dreamt of home, and his favorite burnt chocolate chip pancakes.

Tonight was going to be a good night, with only peaceful dreams.

* * *

**Voila. Hope it's not too bad... Personaly I didn't like it much, but I guess that's not really encouraging people to read more... Bad authoress!!! But whatever... It didn't seem like it when I read it, but this is my longest chapter yet!!! -happy dance-**

**So please R&R... and tell me what you like, don't like, questions, what you think I should change, or what needs to go burn. Everything is appreciated!  
**


	10. Taking naps and hidden talents

**I appologize for the long wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please don't kill me! -cowers- I haven't had any muse or ideas at all, and this chapter is really short. I doubt that it's very good, and I'm horribly aware that I've managed to stretch two days of weekend for ten chapters... Once again, please don't hurt me! But from now on, chapters will cover more. One chapter should be an entire day, if it's an important day, 2 chapters...**

** Having done the math of that in my head... That makes this at least a 42 or 3 chapter fic... Probably more. Hope people don't give up on me before then! But if they do, whatever. I'm writing this for my own amusement. That doesn't mean that I don't love all your reviews though! They make me feel oh-so-special!**

**Disclaimer(which I've forgotten for the past few chapters...): No own!**

* * *

_Piano_

Gaara woke up at three thirty in the morning. He was used to being quiet and sneaking around without waking people up, so he tiptoed over to his backpack, got his CD player and a CD of random mix music in different languages, and his book. He had already finished it, but he hadn't had time to go to a bookstore so he was reading it again. Dracula was one of his favorites anyway.

He settled down on the bed, sitting cross-legged with the CD player beside him. French music began blaring through the headphones, and he turned down the volume just in case Neji was a light sleeper. He had yet a lot to learn about the other boy.

When the music came on, it took him a moment to recognize the song.

This was a song that described his life.

The redhead smiled. He wanted to sing along, but he knew that he shouldn't. It would probably wake his roommate, and he wasn't a very good singer anyway. For some reason, he just couldn't manage to stay in key when he sang.

This song seemed to say something about his life. It was about the cruelty of society and how people can judge others in an instant, but they hate to be judged themselves. It also told about how the singer hated himself for not being able to confess to the one he loved.

There had been a time when Gaara had been suicidal. It had been around the time of early last year, at his first private boarding school. He hadn't had a single friend, he was bullied constantly, and even his teachers didn't like him. He got in on a piano scholarship, but they hardly ever allowed him to play. His roommate acted like he wasn't there when they were alone, but during the day he was one of the redhead's worst tormentors.

He had changed since then. He used to be a cutter, as people called it, but he had really just done it for the sight of his own blood. Unlike his current roommate, he loved the sight of fresh blood, especially his own. There were still faded marks crisscrossing all over his wrists and arms, and he usually wore fishnet sleeves or wristbands to cover them up in the summer. But they were hardly visible anymore.

He had stopped over the summer. His brother had seen one of the particularly deep gashes and forced him into seeing a psychiatrist. He was convinced that it had something to do with seeing his uncle slit his wrists at a young age. Eventually, the two struck a deal. If Gaara stopped cutting, then he wouldn't have to talk to the psychiatrist anymore.

He hadn't thought that hurting himself would make his problems go away, or that it would make anyone pity him, because that was foolish, wishful thinking. He hadn't thought that it would help him feel more human or prove his existence either. He knew that he was alive, otherwise the taunting and other things that were done to him wouldn't bother him at all. But they did. That was why he had begun hurting himself in the first place. It was his choice, and that was what mattered. It was something he could choose to do, and it didn't affect other people, so no one could tell him to stop.

It couldn't bother anyone, because no one cared about him in the first place. If he disappeared, he was convinced that no one would care any further than 'looks like now we'll have to find another punching bag'.

But that was all something of the past. He didn't cut himself anymore. It was useless even to try, because his brother would stop him. No matter where he was, whenever he took up a knife again, his brother's concerned face would flash through his mind and he would put the knife back down.

He checked the clock on the nightstand by his roommate's bed. Three forty. Two hours until Neji woke up. Maybe he would go out for a jog. The redhead slipped out from under the covers and made his way over to the window.

He quickly dismissed the idea of going outside when he saw the snow blanketing the ground. And to top it all off, there was more of it than there had been yesterday. It must have snowed overnight or something.

So he was back to square one again, what could he do to occupy himself for two more hours? Gaara yawned. He couldn't think of anything to do for the next two hours, and it was frustrating.

He paused his train of thought and back up a few steps. He had yawned. How long had it last been since he was tired during the day? Gaara couldn't even remember the last time that he had yawned.

An idea came to him then. Maybe if he… slept until Neji's alarm went off? He decided that the plan was unrealistic and doomed to fail, but that it was worth a shot anyway. He had slept more since he got here than normal, that was true, but going back to sleep after waking up was just beyond any level of miracle that Gaara could think of at the moment. He hadn't taken a nap since he was… well, never that he could think of.

Crawling back into the bed and quietly pulling the sheets up to his chin, the redhead closed his eyes, trying to think about what he could to occupy himself until Neji's alarm went off when this plan failed.

* * *

Gaara shot up as a shrill beeping sound pierced the calm air. He looked quickly left, then right. He saw his roommate sitting up slowly and rubbing his eyes sleepily with one hand while pressing the snooze button on the alarm with the other. 

Had he really fallen asleep for two more hours?

"mphm… Good morning… Sabaku-san…" Neji said groggily, with a tired yawn in the middle. "Did you sleep well?"

"Uh… yeah." Gaara was couldn't think of anything else to say. He flipped the sheets off his body and shivered in the cold air as he walked over to his dresser and pulled out his nicely altered school uniform.

"Erm… Do you mind?" He asked, motioning towards the bathroom door. The brunette shook his head.

"Of course not, Sabaku-san. By all means, feel free to use the bathroom." Gaara nodded meekly, still a bit set off by that oddly annoying formal speech. He hoped that he would get used to it soon.

Stepping into the bathroom, Gaara turned on the hot water in the shower and proceeded to strip off his pajamas. When he saw steam forming behind the glass, he slid open the door and stepped in, letting the hot water drops slide down his lithe frame. He stood under the water with his eyes closed, enjoying the relaxing feel for a moment, before grabbing a bottle of shampoo off the white plastic floor.

It was in the corner, and next to it were very carefully placed bottles, belonging to his roommate. He took a moment to study them. Some expensive looking coconut scented shampoo, and a matching bottle of conditioner next to it, and next to that some sort of liquid body soap. Suddenly, his bottle of cheap drugstore shampoo and soap bar felt somewhat pathetic.

He quickly brushed off the feeling and squirted a generous amount of the liquid into his palm, and massaged it through his short, fiery hair. Of course Neji would need better hair products than him he thought to himself. His hair was longer and nicer than Gaara's could ever hope to be.

He finished his quick shower and turned off the water, opening the door quickly to step out. He shivered again as the cold air nipped at his exposed flesh before he began toweling himself dry. Hastily, he changed into his uniform and bundled up his pajamas beneath his arm before stepping out.

"All yours." Neji looked up from the notebook he had been writing in. He could have sworn that he saw the tiniest hint of a smile grace the Hyuuga's features.

"Your eyes." She said simply. What about his eyes? Gaara wondered.

Shit.

"If you don't mind Sabaku-san, you look quite nice without your eyeliner."

Shit.

"Maybe you would consider not wearing it today?"

Shit. He never let anyone see him without his eyeliner! Except Temari and Kankuro, and even his brother hadn't seen him without it since he started in fourth grade. Temari had, but only because she helped him with it for the first year or so.

Gaara grunted angrily, and stormed over to his bag to pull out his kohl. He shut his eyes and traced the heavy makeup on, not even needing a mirror anymore. he heard Neji chuckle softly.

"Incredible. Who would have thought that Sabaku-san's hidden talent would be the application of eyeliner?"

"Kohl." Gaara said on reflex. His brother had used to tease him about wearing something as girly as eyeliner, and every time he had insisted that it wasn't eyeliner, it was kohl. There wasn't really much of a difference, except maybe that kohl was darker and heavier. And technically, both were used primarily by women, but Kankuro didn't know that. He only knew that his sister wore eyeliner, ad his brother wore kohl.

Neji chuckled again.

"I apologize Sabaku-san. Kohl then. Who would have thought that your hidden talent would the application of _kohl_?" He emphasized the words. Who would have thought that the guy had a sense of humor? And trust it to be now of all times for him to show it.

Without another word, Neji went off into the bathroom to spend God knows how long doing God knows what to his hair.

Half an hour later, Neji emerged from the bathroom, and the two left the room at eight o'clock sharp to get breakfast before homeroom at eight fifty-five. Their backpacks were slung over their shoulders and loaded with books. For Neji, it was just another day at school, but for Gaara, it was a monumental first day at a private school, with a friend.

He only hoped that nothing would go wrong.

* * *

**Ah yes, Gaara is such a pessimisst.**

**I just wanted to add one thing. If you left a review and I didn't answer it, I'm really sorry! I hope you can forgive me! My e-mail system decided to die on me, and didn't send me any mail from the ff net system... So I checked them the manual way through the Stats page at the login, but I think I may haae misssed a couple, or even answered some twice. I'm sorry!!!**

**Well, please leave a review, I love them all! But what I mostly apreciate is suggestions, or if you have any, ideas work too! Thanks so much for taking the time to read the chapters and these insanely long AN's...**


	11. 11: First Day, Pink Envelopes

**So, I know it's been erm... a veeeeeery long time since my last update, and I appologize for that. Um, in slightly more exciting(for me) news, I just got back from the Philippines and Japan yesterday. I'm totally jetlagged(13 hours...), but excited to be home. I got 2 hours of sleep last night, and had a nice 3 hour nap this afternoon. Hopefully I can sleep tonight.**

** But probably not, because I just got HP7. DON'T SPOIL IT FOR ME PLEASE!!!! lol.**

**So yeah. This chapter is by far the longest yet, but I'm really unsure about the quality. As usual, it hasn't been beta'ed or edited, and I kinda skimped on the spellchecker too. -sweatdrop- deal please!  
**

* * *

_Piano_

Gaara stepped into homeroom at seven forty four alongside his roommate, Hyuuga Neji.

Neji slid into a seat behind a wooden desk at the back of the room. Luckily, the desk next to him was empty. Gaara sat there, copying Neji's movements and dropped his backpack on the floor next to him. He was glad to have it off his back. He didn't know what he would need in his classes today, so he had brought everything. His backpack was heavy.

Even though he had homeroom with his roommate, their first period classes were different. Neji had his accelerated math class, and Gaara instead had history. He hasn't been smart enough to get into accelerated math. It was probably his worst subject. Also, they had different art and theater classes. Other than that, the Hyuuga had been right in his assumption that they would have mostly the same classes. He was happy about it, but he wasn't so sure about the older boy.

Gaara looked around the class. Most people were already there he figured, because there were only two empty desks. Up at the front of the room there was a desk with a computer and stacks of paper and books on it. Sitting at the desk looking at the computer was a man that looked to be in his forties, with dark brown hair.

The redhead snapped back into reality when the bell rang. The man at the desk stood up.

"Good morning students. My name is Sarutobi Asuma, you may call me Sarutobi-sensei." A few students looked puzzled. "Why am I introducing myself almost four months into the school year? Because, for those of you who haven't noticed, we have a new student." Gasps and mutters began growing and spreading across the small room in a matter of seconds. People were looking around the room, but few bothered to look behind them.

"His name is Sabaku no Gaara. Why doesn't he come up to the front of the room and tell us a bit about himself? Where is he from, what he enjoys doing and such." The teacher looked expectantly at nobody in particular. Apparently, he didn't yet know what his new student looked like, and couldn't distinguish him form the other students. Perhaps because Gaara was so short that he couldn't be seen behind the people in from of him.

Neji looked at Gaara encouragingly. The redhead sighed. He really didn't want to do this, but he didn't seem to have much of a choice in the matter anyway. He scraped his chair backwards and walked slowly to the front of the class. There were more people in here than he had thought. Looking down at his feet, he began.

"My name is Sabaku no Gaara. I used to live in the desert in the country of wind." He muttered. "I play the piano and enjoy reading and listening to music." A few students sniggered, and the redhead heard a few snide remarks thrown in his direction too. He looked timidly towards the teacher who nodded. Gaara quickly shuffled back to his seat.

"That wasn't too bad now, was it?" Neji said. He sounded like he was mocking his roommate. Had Gaara been anyone other than himself, he might just have pouted right then. Instead, he just made a sort of snorting huffing noise. Neji chuckled a bit.

"Don't worry. Chances are you won't be asked to do that in many of your other classes. If you really don't want to, you can tell the teacher that you'd rather not have to introduce yourself." Gaara was almost hurt. _He's treating me like a little kid!_ But another part of his mind was more reasonable. _He's probably just concerned because I looked like such a shy idiot up there._

But before either of them had the chance to say anything to make the already awkward situation worse, the bell rang telling everyone to rush off to their first period class.

"Well, it would seem that we won't be seeing each other again today until fourth period. Have fun on your first day." The brunette said warmly as he hoisted the bag back onto his shoulder. Gaara tossed his on and followed Neji out.

"Erm… Do you know where my math class is?" The redhead asked hesitantly. Neji turned around.

"Oh, yeah. It's the next door on the left that way." He answered, pointing in the opposite direction. Gaara nodded and thanked him before rushing off so as not to be late for first period.

He walked through the open door into a relatively cold room. He was glad for the uniform jacket's long sleeves as he took a seat in the back row of the room again. There were ten or so other people already there, among them two that he could recognize from homeroom and the boy with the cello that Neji had introduced as Shino on Saturday.

The teacher was a young looking woman with shoulder length brown hair wearing a grey skirt and a navy blue long sleeved shirt. She looked friendly enough the redhead decided. She walked over to him.

"Sabaku-san, correct?" Gaara nodded. "I'm Shizune-sensei, your history teacher for the year. This is the textbook that we're using this year, and we are currently studying world war two." She handed the redhead a large red and blue book labeled 'A History of Japan'. Gaara thanked her, and she walked off.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Neji sat at his assigned seat in the front row of his math room. He pulled a black spiral notebook, a white folder and a mechanical pencil out of his bag. He opened the folder, revealing neatly organized papers and took the first two sheets on the left side. His math homework. Hayate-sensei walked around and collected the work from each of his students, before beginning to talk about today's work.

The brunette listened attentively and took detailed notes on everything in his neat cursive handwriting. Basically, he did what he did every class. When Hayate-sensei passed out a worksheet to finish in class, he took out his calculator and did the work on a clean sheet of paper which he passed in at the end of class before writing down his homework.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

History had been… well, Gaara couldn't exactly recall how it had been because he hadn't been paying attention for most of class. Shizune-sensei was friendly, but she just talked on and on all class. The redhead had been extremely relieved when the bell rang. Shoving a still unused black notebook and pencil into his backpack, Gaara went off in search of his next class. Theater.

Luckily, the class was in the auditorium, and he remembered passing by it this morning. It couldn't be too hard to fins again. He would just have to retrace his steps and head back towards the dorm rooms.

Now… if only he could remember where those were…

He walked down a hall with walls decorated with paintings and drawings by art students. He took a left at a room labeled 'Philosophy 307', and stopped outside a stairwell. He had no clue where he was. Luckily, he found a teacher standing out in the hall, walking towards the stairs.

"Um… Excuse me sensei?" The man turned. He recognized him as his first period teacher Sarutobi-sensei. The man smiled down at him.

"Oh, Hello Gaara-san! How are you? Looking for your class I presume?" The redhead shifter his feet uneasily. Did he really look that lost?

"Um… yeah. Could you tell me where the auditorium is please?"

"Oh! You were looking for the _auditorium_? Well, ehm… you're going to want to go back down the hall you just came from, then take a left, go past the nurse's office, and take a right by the cafeteria." Gaara attempted to process all that. Go down the art hallway, take a… right? Past some room, and take a turn by somewhere else…

"Why don't I walk you there? I need to be in the area anyway." Gaara was about ready to fall over in relief. Sure he would look like an idiot getting walked to class by a teacher, but it would be better than wandering aimlessly for the next week and dying of starvation… Okay. Maybe that was overreacting just a little bit…

"Thank you very much." He followed Sarutobi-sensei back down the hallway from whence he came (cue dramatic music and lightning), but this time he took a moment to admire some of the art on the walls. All the art work was beautiful. Gaara was sure that he could never make anything that looked nearly as good.

One that caught his eye was a white canvas with a black circle on it that looked like a gaping hole, and it had flames around the edges as if the hole was being burned larger. Inside the black hole was a white spot of light with a small bright red heart in its center. But it wasn't a heart like on a Valentine's day card, it was an actual painting of a heart, like the one in the body. The white light looked like it was emanating from the heart. As if the light from the heart was what had started the fire that burned at the skin. He looked at the label under the canvas. 'Paper Skin by Hyuuga Neji, Freshman'

LINELINELINELINEILNEILNEILNEILNELINELINELINEILNEILNEILNE

"Okay class. Today we're going to be starting a new project. This time it's a sketch, un." A few groans were heard, but nothing was meant by them, because art was everyone's favorite class. Or, at least the teacher made sure art everyone's favorite class. Neji focused his wandering gaze on the man at the front of the room talking animatedly about the project they were about to start.

He was tall and pale, with bright blonde hair massed up on top of his head in a messy ponytail. His left eye was hidden behind a thick curtain of it, but the right one was constantly darting around the room observing everything. Sometimes he was a bit intimidating and scary, but most of the time he was the ecstatic, bouncy art teacher, Deidara-sensei. He was a good natured man, and very wise, even though he may not look it. He never told anyone how old he was, but he looked almost too young to be a teacher at such a prestigious school.

Deidara-sensei eventually stopped bouncing long enough to explain that he project would be a charcoal sketch of a noun.

"A person, place, or thing if you will. Nothing vulgar, if you want to allude to something or do something funny, by all means, knock yourself out, un! No paneled comics or anything though." He talked a while longer about the project, but when a student decided he was rambling he asked how Deidara-sensei's weekend had been. That had changed the subject easily enough, and sooner than he though, the bell rang and class was over.

LINELINELINEINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELNELINELINELIN

Gaara finally made his way to the auditorium, but he was about five minutes late to class. Luckily, the teacher didn't seem to mind too much.

"New kid, eh?" The man must have been the teacher, because he was sitting behind a large desk, typing away at a computer. He was pale and wore a dark grey suit, but what intrigued Gaara most was his hair. It as like his, bright red.

"And a red head too, eh? Well new kid, we're working on monologues and group acting. See that kid over there?" He pointed to a boy with black hair. Gaara couldn't see him very well, because his back was towards them. "That boy's name is Aburame Shino, and he doesn't have a group mate. Why don't you go work with him? He's a bit quiet, but he's not a bad kid. Oh, and my name is Sasori-sensei by the way." Gaara nodded, and walked over to where Shino was sitting.

"Hello. You're Sabaku no Gaara." He said it very much as a statement, and not a question. It was a bit unsettling. "You play piano quite beautifully." Gaara wasn't really sure what to say to that. It was a bit awkward. He was still standing behind the boy, and he hadn't even turned around. He just spoke to him while still reading his script.

"Thanks…" He mumbled sheepishly. "Sasori-sensei said that we should practice the group acting I think…" Shino stuck his finger in the packet to mark his page and shut it with a snap before turning around to look at the redhead. He had to tilt his head back a bit because he was sitting and Gaara was standing.

"Yes. Let us begin." Gaara nodded stiffly and sat in the blue plastic chair across from him, with the script spread out on the desk in between them.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELNELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Neji was frustrated. He had sat on the bright green painted stool all class, staring at the large white sheet of paper on the table in front of him. It was blank, except for his name and section written neatly in the bottom right hand corner. It was blank _all class_. He had no inspiration. He couldn't draw anything. He could never not draw.

_Why can't I draw anything?_ He wondered angrily. And that was exactly it. He hadn't been _able_ to draw anything. He had lifted the pencil and set it a millimeter above the paper numerous times, but he just wasn't getting the flowing feeling in his arm that he usually got when he was drawing or about to start. There had been some obnoxious voice in the back of his head telling him that he shouldn't draw yet. That now wasn't the right time. _Why?_

The thought plagued him as he walked quickly down the hall to his history class. Passing the auditorium, he decided to stop and wait a moment to see if Gaara would come out. To see if maybe he should walk the redhead to his next class so that he wouldn't get lost. The rooms were in the same hallway anyway.

Sure enough, Gaara walked out, shoving a spiral notebook into his backpack while walking. He was so absorbed in getting the book to fit in that he walked right into Neji.

"Sorry!" He muttered quickly. Then he looked up. Neji smiled kindly.

"Hello Sabaku-san. How was your theater class?" The two began walking in stride, the notebook finally put away.

"Um… Pretty good I guess. Sasori-sensei seems friendly." The redhead was speaking very quietly, all the while looking down at his sneakers.

"Yes, he is one of the nicer teachers. But wait until we have Japanese. **(AN: Because they live in Japan, Japanese class is basically like English class in the US.) **Anko-sensei is… Anko-sensei is _not_ shy." Gaara looked a little worried. _I wonder what he means by that. Shit. Shit. Shit! This could be bad…_ Neji noticed the worry spreading across his roommates face. _I wonder if I worried him…_

"She's not mean, she just has a very… in-your-face attitude." Gaara almost laughed. He almost cracked up. Hearing the brunette say something like 'She has a very in-your-face attitude' was hilarious to him for some reason. It just sounded very out of place hearing it from him. But his mental laughing was interrupted when Neji spoke again.

"Well Sabaku-san, this is your class. Mine is over there, but I'll meet you back here for French after this." He said, pointing in the direction they had just come form. Gaara looked down at his feet and muttered thanks. _He just walked me to class. He even went out of his way to do it! We walked right by his class, and now he has to run halfway back down the hall to get back…_

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Gaara walked out of his math class half asleep. He never had liked math very much. Too many numbers, hell, they even threw in letters. On the other hand, math was one of his best subjects because it made sense. Math was always logical. There were formulas, and if you just plug in the numbers, you'll get a logical answer. Nothing to it.

He stepped out the door, backpack slung loosely over one shoulder, and looked down the hallway in the direction of the history room. He felt like a little kid waiting to get picked up by his parent or something. He felt pathetic. Adjusting his backpack so it was placed more in the center of his back, Gaara started off at a brisk walk towards Neji's class.

He made it to the door just as the brunette stepped out. This time, he would be more collected. He hoped…

"Hey Neji." Surprisingly enough, he looked a bit flustered. His backpack was open and held in front of him, and a textbook that he recognized as the one he had been given this morning was sticking halfway out. Not to mention the way he had practically stumbled out of the classroom looking as if he had to be somewhere very far away very fast.

He looked down at the redhead for a moment before replying.

"Hello Sabaku-san. I apologize that I was late. I made you come all the way down here." Gaara shook his head. Neji was just too polite sometimes.

"It's okay. French is this way anyway, right?" The brunette nodded, tossing his backpack over his shoulder.

"Yes. Shall we?"

LINELINELINELINEILNEILNELINELINELINELINELINELINEILNEILNELINELINE

Gaara shoved his books into his bag three minutes before the bell rang. Three minutes and thirty four seconds to be precise. He had been watching the clock since class started.

It would seem that the teacher, Asuma-sensei had taken a liking to Gaara because Kurenai had told him what a good pianist he was. Because he had taken a liking to him, he picked him to answer all sorts of questions that he did or did not know the answer too. But whether or not he knew the answer wasn't the point. Because he knew _most_ of the answers, Asuma-sensei liked him more, therefore he picked him more. Not to mention the weird looks he was getting from the rest of his classmates.

And because of this, Gaara decided that he didn't like French class. At all. At least he got to sit next to Neji. But on his other side was an annoying boy with long black hair **(AN: Just a random character…)** who kept tapping his pencil on the desk. The noise was beginning to drive the redhead insane.

So when the bell rang at exactly noon, Gaara was the first out of the door. Even though he sat in the back of the room. He didn't even wait for Neji, for which he felt a bit guilty, because Asuma-sensei was smiling at him again in a way that looked like he wanted to talk. Leaning against the wall right outside the door, Gaara wondered absent-mindedly why the teacher hadn't noticed him nearly this much in homeroom.

"Sabaku-san, there you are." Gaara spun around quickly, and was met with Neji's smiling face.

"Yeah. Sorry 'bout that." The brunette shook his head.

"Not a problem. Asuma-sensei asked you a lot of questions. I've heard that he does that to his new students." Gaara nodded. What an odd man.

Well, hopefully his next class would be less awkward. In fact… what _did_ he have next? He moved to get his schedule out of his bag, but Neji was a step ahead of him.

"We have Japanese now." He said calmly. Gaara nodded meekly and resumed looking down at his feet while following Neji.

LINELINELINEILNEILNELINEILNELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Gaara didn't concentrate much in his next class either. Why you may ask? No, not because he didn't like this class, but because Neji had been right. Anko-sensei was defiantly _not_ shy. She was, exactly as he had said, very in-your-face.

The moment he had walked into the class, she spotted him. Gaara-kun! She squealed, observing that he must be the new student she had heard so much about. _How could she have heard about me? It's only fifth period…_ Then she had put him in a seat at the front of the room, effectively moving a brainy looking boy with short brown hair **(AN: just another random charrie.)** to the back. He hadn't looked pleased.

She had ignored him for most of the rest of class, something for which he was grateful. Normally he liked this class. He loved writing, and he wasn't half bad either. But this teacher just creeped him out. He wondered briefly how the other students could stand it.

Not to mention that it was one o'clock in the afternoon by the time class finished, and Gaara was hungry. He had checked his schedule, and luckily he had lunch right after. On the other hand, knowing that it was almost lunch time just made him hungrier. He hoped that he had the same lunch as Neji. If not…

Then he mentally chided himself for thinking like that. He had become so dependant! Hadn't he always eaten lunch on his own? When he was a lot younger he would eat with one or both of his siblings, but for the last three years, he had been on his own. Why should it matter now that he had no one to sit with? He had gotten to used to being with other people, even though it had only been a few days. He was becoming pathetic.

"Sabaku-san," He recognized the voice. It was Neji. "You have lunch period now I assume?" The redhead nodded.

"You?"

"The same." He replied, with the usual amount of formality in his voice. "Shall we go?" Gaara nodded.

LUNCHLUNCHLUNCHLUNCHLUNCHLINELINELINEINE

"We have music next." The redhead muttered in between bites of his turkey sandwich.

"It is a two-hour period." Neji replied, calmly wiping a stray drop of water from the corner of his mouth.

"Then we meet with Kurenai-sensei for an hour." To this, the brunette simply nodded. Lunch with the Hyuuga was a horridly silent affair, and Gaara was constantly painfully aware of every crumb that fell on his lap and every drop of water that hung off of his lips. He was eating a turkey sandwich on white bread with a slice of cheese in it, and a bottle of water. Neji was chewing on a neat bite of his meal, a turkey wrap with lettuce and tomatoes.

Gaara was actually excited about going to music class though. He felt uncomfortable with all the stares that he was getting in every one of his new classes, but if he could play the piano again, he would be alright. Especially if it was the exquisite white grand piano he had been allowed to perform with last time.

With thoughts of playing on his mind, he quickly devoured his lunch and drank down his water. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough that he was such a messy eater, by the time he had finished, Neji was still coolly munching on his wrap. The redhead tried his best to check his watch discreetly. They had twenty minutes before class started.

"We should begin to go to class, Sabaku-san if we want time to warm-up beforehand." Gaara was a bit startled, but he nodded, and followed Neji as he dropped his finished bottle in a recycling bin and left the plate on a conveyor belt inside the cafeteria.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

"Gaara-kun, just go sit by Neji at the white piano, would you please?" Gaara nodded, and walked off behind Neji. He seemed to be nodding a lot today. Not to mention that she had answered his question before he had even asked it. This whole school was very weird for him, and by this point he was just glad that he was sitting by a piano. This was his comfort zone.

When the faint sound of scales being played _pianissimo_ reached him, he looked up to see Neji practicing at the black grand piano across him. Taking a deep breath, he gazed down at the white and black keys. They looked, and even _felt_ like real ivory. He scrunched his pale fingers into fists then stretched them out a few times before setting them gently on the ivory.

He began playing.

It was slow and quiet, just a simple piece that he liked to use for his warm-ups. A note here and there, and his eyes drifted shut as the familiar sounds flowed from this unfamiliar instrument. It was nice to know that even if he was surrounded by people and things that made him feel small and insignificant, this would always remain.

That was what music was for him. It was a constant in life, and he would keep playing for the rest of his life, pouring his heart and soul into every note each time he sat on the bench because it was always going to sound right if he did. Every time he completed a section of a melody, it seemed to fit somewhere inside of him, and it felt so right. So good.

The class had filled with students now, a few playing scales, some talking, and one or two others like him playing warm-up pieces. But Gaara noticed none of them. His head was swaying in time with the beat, fingers ghosting over keys and applying just the right amount of pressure to the chosen few notes that he wanted. His thin arms stretched to reach one end of the scale, then quickly retracted, seamlessly switching keys.

"Alright, everyone stop playing." Kurenai's voice snapped him out of his playing, and immediately the music stopped. But no one noticed, because he had been playing too quietly to hear with all the sounds of other students practicing around him.

"So here's the deal. We're running out of time, because the concert is less than a month away and closing in way too fast. Got it?" No one dared to answer her. Although she was a kindly woman with a friendly disposition, she knew how to command a room.

"Now, there has been a rather huge change in plans, so I'm going to tell you all about it, and I want no complaints." There was a bit of hushed whispering rippling through the room, but it died out quickly when the students saw the look their teacher was giving them. It was chilling.

"Our current soloist is Hyuuga Neji-kun. As we saw yesterday, our new student Sabaku no Gaara-kun is a rather outstanding pianist himself, and he knows our performance piece. It has been agreed upon by the three of us that Gaara-kun and Neji-kun will work together to re-write the solo part into a duet that the two of them will share. This will not change any of your parts, I just wanted to tell you, even though you have no say in the matter." A few students chuckled at her crude joke.

For the next two hours, class went as usual. They went through the piece time after time, going back to fix small errors until the song flowed like clockwork. Neji and Gaara took turns playing the solo, and a few times they switched off every page or so. Kurenai looked pleased, and when class ended, a few people smiled at Gaara, and two even said hello to him. It was a first.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

After spending ten uneventful minutes in homeroom, Neji and Gaara trudged back to their room, backpacks heavy with books and homework. They had about twenty minutes before they had to go back to the music room to meet Kurenai-sensei. There was no way they could even make a dent in their homework by then, but it wouldn't stop them from trying.

The second they entered the room, Neji put his backpack down on his bed, shrugged off his blazer, folded it, and set it next to the book bag before reaching into his dresser to find some new clothes.

"You're not required to wear your uniform to meet with teachers after school Sabaku-san, so feel free to change if you wish." He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, but quickly spun around again to search through his clothes, and the sudden movement made his carefully tied ponytail whip around and smack him in the face on the other side. Gaara almost laughed. He was beginning to slowly realize that Neji was human, just like him. He wasn't always perfect.

"Do you mind if I use the bathroom?" Gaara answered no. He was already seated at his desk with a notebook and math book open, tapping the eraser of his silver grey mechanical pencil on the wood absentmindedly. Then on second thought, he decided that he would change also, and he went to go rummage through his drawers.

He pulled out a baggy pair of black pants with a few silver chains on the left side and some safety pins on the pocket and hems, a plain black T-shirt, and his new fitting bright red zip-up. When Neji left the bathroom, Gaara moved to go in to change. He would have gone right away, but he felt the need to marvel at the brunette's sheer beauty for a moment.

He was wearing straight grey jeans with a fitting black long sleeved shirt that showed off the muscles on his arms and abdomen. But most beautiful, his hair wasn't tied, but instead hanging loosely around him, cascading over his shoulders and back, and yet not a strand was out of place. For the millionth time since he had gotten to Konoha Music Academy, Gaara found himself comparing himself to his roommate.

While Neji's hair was long, straight and perfect, Gaara's was short, spiky, rough, and a perpetual mess. When he dragged a brush through it, it produced a hideous ripping noise. Neji's style, while not that of your traditional rich prep-boy stereotype, wasn't far from cliché. His clothes, while not as expensive as they may look, were always neat and matched perfectly, and he always seemed to know what to wear for every occasion. Not like Gaara, who, if not prompted to do otherwise, could wear the same outfit for days in a row.

"Sabaku-san, would you like to change before we go?" The redhead was a bit startled. Had he spaced out? No… he had been… staring. At Neji. _He must think I'm a complete idiot!_

"Yeah." The brunette moved aside graciously, and Gaara walked into the bathroom hurriedly and clumsily. He could feel the heat in his cheeks and wanted to escape from view as quickly as possible.

In the bathroom, he leaned back against the sink and let out a deep breath. Perhaps if he just acted as if it had never happened? Soon they would be concentrated on music anyway, and then they would eat and spend the rest of the night on homework. There wouldn't be time to be uncomfortable about it. Deciding that this was the smartest plan, or at least the smartest plan he could think of right now, Gaara began to change.

He unzipped the blazer and tossed it on the ground, then bent over to slip off his socks. Slowly, he unbuttoned the small white buttons on his shirt, slipping it on top of the pile by the toilet. He shivered when the cold air hit his chest after he stripped off the white undershirt he had on, then stepped out of his pants. He took the heavy pants off the lid of the toilet where he had left them, pulling them up and shutting them. They were a bit big, so they hung low on his thin hips, showing off a good two inches of his red boxers. He had, however, picked a strategically long shirt. When he zipped the sweater halfway up, it revealed the end of his shirt under the hem.

Gaara folded his pile of clothes, and left the bathroom without looking in the mirror. He knew if he did, he would find some little detail he didn't lie about his appearance. There was always something, so it was probably best to not look.

He stuffed the soiled undershirt in a paper bag under his bed, and put the folded uniform back in the top drawer of his dresser. Neji was sitting at his desk, writing something in a notebook. When he heard the silence that meant that Gaara was done putting his things away, he turned to face the redhead.

"Shall we go?" Gaara nodded, but Neji didn't move. He knew that Gaara's things weren't yet packed for their meeting with Kurenai-sensei. He was proved right when his roommate went over to his desk instead of the door and took some books out of his backpack, replacing them with notebooks and a folder of sheet music and staff paper.

"Okay. Time to head out pretty boy." Gaara shocked himself with the comment. He had no clue why he had said that, it had just come out of his mouth. He felt like bashing his head into the wall behind him, but that would probably just make him look even stranger. Neji turned in his chair. Not quickly, not slowly, he just turned.

His hair was tied off up at the top now, and it fell over his right shoulder, reaching past the back of his rolling chair. The look in his eyes was unreadable, but his mouth was set in a thin line. Although, Gaara could have sworn that for a second he saw the edges of the brunette's mouth twitch upwards.

But instead of saying something, anything, he instead took his bag and walked straight past his roommate, and opened the door. He held it open and looked behind him at the stupefied redhead. Gaara noticed that he was holding something in his hand, something… pink. It seemed somehow familiar, but he couldn't place it. Until Neji spoke that is.

"Coming?" Here he made a sound that sounded like suppressed laughter. "Gaa-chan?" Gaara's eyes widened, and recognition flashed through his head. That pink thing, it was an envelope! And it was from Temari! How could he not have remembered; Temari always used pink envelopes, and addressed her letters to 'Gaa-chan'. But… how did Neji get a hold of it?

Of course, of more pressing urgency than figuring how the letter came to be in his roommate's possession, was getting it back. Gaara lunged at the older boy who skillfully moved out of the way, causing the redhead and his bag to fall/run out into the hallway. He stumbled, but managed to regain his balance before falling flat on his face or hitting the wall. Neji began running, rather fast, down the hallway, so Gaara chased after him.

Gaara wasn't a particularly fast runner, but had _had_ to get that letter back! Temari had a tendency to write all sorts of crazy things in her letters to him, and if Neji read it… Not to mention that he had told Temari a bit about his roommate when he had called her the night before. And… he had actually let slip that he maybe had some feelings for the other boy. He had always felt like he could trust Temari, however misplaced that trust was.

What Gaara _didn't_ know, was that Neji was known as one of the fastest players on his soccer team. The speed he was running at now was fast, but not nearly as fast as he could go. He risked a glance over his shoulder, if only to gauge how fast the redhead was. He almost laughed out loud to see the boy struggling to regain his balance after lunging out the door. Neji spared him, and slowed down a bit.

Gaara chased Neji all the way to the door of the music room. There, the brunette finally stopped, only the slightest bit out of breathe. When Gaara caught up, he was panting hard. He bent over, resting his hands on his knees until his breathing returned to relatively normal. He straightened and looked up at Neji.

The brunette smiled. It was a real, honest to God smile. And he was smiling at Gaara. To put it bluntly, Gaara was amazed, dazzled, stupefied, and at a loss for other adjectives to describe his surprise. He handed the younger boy the pink envelope, and walked into Kurenai's classroom, holding the door open behind him. Gaara scrambled to recover his senses and sort out his mind, and followed him in.

* * *

**Voila, there's the chapter I made you all wait so long for. Erm... I'll try and update sooner next time, really I will. But I can't (as usual) guarantee anything, because I'm starting my freshman year o high school four weeks from yesterday EST. lolz.**


End file.
